International Dialogues
by Vigilluminatus
Summary: Less dry than the title sounds. This is a series of loosely related short stories about different characters from Tangled and Frozen realizing that they have much in common and could be great friends. Chapter 9: Elsa meets a young noble while she is visiting Corona. When she learns that his childhood wasn't a happy one either, she is intrigued.
1. Cursed with magic

The more I think about it, the more in common the characters of Tangled and Frozen seem to have: Elsa's and Rapunzel's magic, Kristoff and Eugene both being in relationships with royalty, Rapunzel's and Anna's outgoing nature... so why not write a few stories about it? Enjoy! And if you feel like it, leave a review.

Neither Tangled nor Frozen are mine. Oh, what a cruel world!

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**Cursed with magic**

Queen Elsa of Arendelle was a bit nervous. Not "a complete wreck", as her dear sister had told her in Anna's very own, very direct way, definitely not. If she WAS a complete wreck, her seat in the conference hall of the Arendelle castle would have probably been covered in ice already. But this talk... it was very important. She knew that Anna had only tried to make Elsa relax with her smiles and jokes, knowing that the big sister still didn't work well under pressure, and she was probably right... but so much depended on this one talk.

Elsa sighed. She wished that Anna was here. Her younger sister didn't participate in royal matters usually, aside from entertaining Arendelle's guests whenever Elsa needed a break – which Elsa was very thankful for since she still was not used to constantly be around people. It wasn't that Anna was dumb or anything – she hadn't spent as many hours of her life reading and learning as Elsa had, but Anna was still a princess and had had a royal upbringing too... at least until their parents had died. Back then, when Elsa had stopped talking to her younger sister altogether and had focused completely on learning everything she needed to know as a queen, Anna had fled into the world of romance novels... which had led to the disaster with Hans. Well, Anna had grown up since then, but even after all the princess had been through with Hans and Elsa herself, she still retained her sunny, optimistic nature which made it so easy for Elsa to relax around her. No matter how stressed Elsa was because of her royal duties, a couple of smiles, hugs, a few minutes of talking was usually all it took for Elsa to feel relaxed and happy again. Elsa smiled. After all these years of trying to suppress what she really was, of trying to achieve perfect self-control, she loved how Anna's company somehow made it so easy to control her magic while still being able to express her feelings.

Well, usually. Anna was not here right now. This was Princess Rapunzel's wish. And that was pretty much everything Elsa knew about the Coronian princess' visit here in Arendelle. Which was the reason why she was nervous. After the infamous events that had transpired after Elsa's coronation, few of their guests had shown outright hostility – well, aside from Hans and the Duke of Weselton –, but neither had many of them accepted Elsa's invitation to stay longer in Arendelle as compensation for the danger Elsa had put them through. Most of them had been polite, but they had left pretty soon, probably to tell their monarchs about the new situation in Arendelle. It didn't help her mood today that Princess Rapunzel and Prince Eugene had been one of those who had left Arendelle nearly immediately. It had been a very stressful time for Elsa... fortunately none of the other kingdoms had cut their ties to Arendelle openly, but it seemed like they were simply observing Elsa's behavior. If one kingdom decided to stop trading with Arendelle, then it was very possible that more would follow suit.

Which would be disastrous. Elsa's unnatural winter had affected the harvest in Arendelle this year, they had been forced to open the granaries and the country was nearly without supplies now. And since their relationship to the Southern Isles and especially Weselton was pretty much non-existent now... Elsa had asked herself many times if she should maybe have ignored the Duke of Weseltons attempts to kill her for the sake of her country. Anna had argued fervently against that, but Weselton had been Arendelle's most important business partner for long years. Elsa needed to find new allies or Arendelle would suffer because of her actions, but most of the other countries were too wary of her right now... and now the princess of Corona was here, and Elsa couldn't help but ask herself if this would be the first country suspending relations with Arendelle, causing a chain reaction which could ruin her nation. No matter how many times Anna had told Elsa to just calm down and hope for the best, fear had been with her for most of her life. It wasn't so easy to get rid of that. She grimaced when she noticed that she had frozen her hot chocolate. She quickly summoned the image of her and Anna playing as children to thaw the beverage, but that only meant that it was not frozen anymore, it was far from warm. She wondered if she still had enough time to ask someone to...?

Three knocks on the door interrupted her thoughts. "Elsa?" A cough. "Um, I mean... my queen? May we enter?"

Elsa smiled affectionately. Anna would never change. And in fact, Elsa didn't want her to. "Come in," she said in her "official" voice, as Anna called it, and stood up.

The door opened and Anna walked in, smiled at Elsa and curtsied like a maid. Elsa allowed herself to roll her eyes. She knew that even a princess had to pay respect to the queen, better than Anna herself actually, but Anna seemed intent on overdoing things, as if she was trying to mock Elsa. Or maybe their "official" relationship, when they had become so close again as sisters.

"My queen, I present to you Princess Rapunzel of Corona," Anna announced with way too much pathos. Then she turned around to Arendelle's guests, curtsying again. "Princess Rapunzel, meet Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

Elsa couldn't help but snort. The whole situation was still as serious as it had been before, but once again Anna had managed to ease Elsa's worries a bit by just... being Anna. She felt the love for her little sister spreading through her body, keeping her fear at bay for now. Still, she couldn't show any weakness, so she kept a straight face.

"That's enough, Anna," she chided, then facing the foreign princess and her escort, Prince Eugene. "I'm very sorry," she told the two, respectfully bowing her head, "I can only guess that my sister is trying to... break the ice by acting this way."

Anna harrumphed. "Well, it seems my services are not appreciated." She walked over to Prince Eugene, offering her hand. "Prince Eugene, would you like to accompany me as long as the queen and Princess Rapunzel are busy doing royal stuff?"

The prince was enough of a gentleman to smile at Anna and link arms with her. But his eyes stayed serious, looking at Rapunzel questioningly. Elsa knew what that meant all too well. He was worried. Worried that his wife had requested to be alone in this room with the infamous Snow Queen. Perhaps he was right to be, but the foreign princess smiled at her husband encouragingly.

"Don't worry, Eugene," she said, gently squeezing his arm. "I will be fine."

"Are you sure?"

The prince looked at Elsa. She could tell that he was trying very hard to avoid showing any negative emotions, but he wasn't completely successful. This was his wife after all. Elsa didn't move at all.

"Yes, I am sure," Rapunzel assured him and pushed him out of the door. "I'll see you later. You too I hope, Princess Anna."

"Sure!" Anna agreed, showing another bright smile before closing the door.

The princess took a deep breath, turned around and curtsied herself, although in a far less mocking manner than Anna. "Your Highness," she greeted Elsa.

Elsa smiled and pointed at the seat right next to her own. "Please, Princess Rapunzel, sit down," she said, with as much of a warm voice as someone like her was capable of. She still was not sure what this meeting would be about, but thanks to Anna's little act she was not quite as tense anymore. "You just arrived here in Arendelle and immediately requested this meeting just between the two of us. The least I can do is offering you a cup of hot chocolate before we start with the negotiations. You like chocolate, I hope?"

"Oh yes!" the princess exclaimed, sitting down and taking a sip. "I love chocolate, especially here in Arendelle! Corona is generally warmer, so I can't enjoy it just as much as here..." Then she realized that she had started rambling and coughed slightly. "I'm sorry, your Highness. I am just really excited to be here."

Elsa couldn't help but smile. "It feels like you have spent too much time with my sister already," she commented.

Suddenly Rapunzel's face became serious. "She is worried about you."

Elsa blinked. "Pardon me?"

"Princess Anna. She is worried about you," Rapunzel clarified. "When we walked here, she told us that she thought you were a bit... stressed lately. And that she would overact a bit to amuse you and that Eugene and I shouldn't feel offended." The foreign princess gave Elsa a look which the queen couldn't decipher. "Your sister seems to love you very much, your Highness."

Elsa looked down and blinked again to remove the sudden wetness in her eyes. She couldn't show any weakness in her role as a queen, but as with her fear in her childhood days she had still not learned to keep her love for her baby sister in control, when it attempted to overwhelm her. Not that she really wanted to. A huge part of her wanted to pour out her heart to the Coronian princess about just how much Anna meant to her... that without her sister's love she would have never learned to control her magic, that Anna was always there to imbue even the dullest day with joy, that she could not even imagine spending her life without Anna's laughter anymore. But she controlled herself. Anna would be furious, if she knew about it... but in her role as queen Elsa found her old mantra to be useful still: Conceal, don't feel.

"I sometimes wonder how it would be to have siblings... neither me nor Eugene have any, or at least real ones in his case." Rapunzel was still staring at Elsa, but then she suddenly blinked and blushed slightly. "Oh! I digressed again! Uh, my father would be SO disappointed in me right now..." She opened the bag she had been carrying around since she had arrived and fetched an important looking document, sealed with the official Coronian Sun seal. "Queen Elsa," the princess continued with a far more dignified voice. "My father, Kind Thomas of Corona, sent me here to deliver this document."

Ah, yes. Elsa's good mood left her. Princess Rapunzel did not seem to fear her at all, but King Thomas had never met Elsa. This still might be bad news. Well, no reason to delay this any further. She accepted the document, carefully broke the royal seal and unrolled the paper. She knew that the first part would probably just be empty phrases, just like the ones she herself used to start official letters, but she read them carefully nonetheless. This document might be too important to miss even the tiniest detail.

She was halfway through when she suddenly lost her composure, became wide-eyed and stared at Princess Rapunzel, who was just barely concealing a huge smile. "A formal trade agreement?" she repeated what she had just read, not quite ready to believe it. "Favored trading partners?"

"Yes!" Rapunzel had obviously known what the document was about, and she was delighted by Elsa's reaction. "Isn't that wonderful?" Then she – again – remembered that she was here in her official role as a princess and composed herself. "I mean... does Arendelle think this offer would be beneficial to both of us?"

Elsa was still puzzled. She was thankful that she had much better control over her magic now, otherwise the letter would probably be frozen now, instead of just a thin layer of rime, which she shoved away quickly. Beneficial? If this was not some cruel joke, then this letter would probably solve a huge part of Arendelle's import and export problems right now. But she did not understand... she put the document on the table, giving Rapunzel a severe look.

"Princess Rapunzel... may we speak openly?"

The foreign princess blinked, suddenly looking a bit insecure. "Uhm... sure, your Highness."

"Why?"

"Why... what?" Rapunzel was getting more and more nervous. Maybe because Elsa's clasped hands had begun to freeze over, the queen noticed, and mentally ordered them to thaw immediately.

"I am sorry," Elsa apologized, her voice becoming softer. "But I just don't understand... Corona isn't poor. Much of what your country needs, you can produce yourself, and many countries do business with you, Arendelle not so much in the past. And after the events at my coronation... well, you and Prince Eugene were some of the very first to leave, some would say flee Arendelle. And now, a few months later... you are here again, not only offering a simple trade agreement, but nearly a firm alliance. I just don't understand how Corona would benefit from this agreement."

"Well... do we have to?" Rapunzel asked. She seemed to have calmed down a little... but she still seemed to be a bit cautious. "Isn't it a noble thing to help those in need? And Arendelle HAS suffered from the sudden winter... not that I want to say you did it intentionally, your Highness," she quickly added.

"Yes, that would be noble," Elsa agreed. "But this is how people think – not how rulers think, who have to worry about relationships with other countries too." She leaned back. "Look, princess... I won't lie. This document seems like a godsend to me right now. I just would like to know the reasons why your father, a man I have never met and who has probably heard some sinister tales about me, would make such an offer."

"I see." Rapunzel nodded. She seemed to have calmed down now. "Well... then I will speak openly too. One reason would be that my marriage with Eugene has not caused open hostilities, but some countries didn't take it very well that the only princess of Corona didn't marry one of their princes."

Elsa nodded. That sounded right. She had not heard much of it, but once or twice an ambassador had mentioned during smalltalk how... unorthodox this marriage had been.

"My father would probably not want me to tell you this," Rapunzel continued, "but this HAS inflicted at least some damage on our relations to some other countries. They are still civil and have not stopped their merchants from doing business with us, but there seems to be a little less trade than before overall. Not particularly much, mind you, but still enough to wonder if it will decrease even more."

"I see," Elsa concluded. "So you are looking for new allies... particularly countries you haven't done quite as much business before, like Arendelle."

"Well, that was the reason that convinced my father," Rapunzel replied. Her gaze had become quite intense. "He thinks showing that Corona does not intend to cut off any relations, but is also not overly dependent on other countries is best right now. But it was not MY reason."

Elsa's eyebrow twitched. "YOUR reason, princess?"

"Yes." The foreign princess' voice was very serious now. "You were right, my father was quite wary of you at first because of all the stories... but I managed to convince him that you are not a danger to Corona, but that you are actually... very much like me."

Elsa could feel her magic deep inside of her stirring, but she held it back. This talk was not at all how she had envisioned it. "What do you mean?"

"Queen Elsa... you think that you are the only human whose early life was ruined by a magic you didn't ask for." Elsa suddenly remembered Anna's eyes when her younger sister had visited her in her Ice Palace... full of sympathy and determination to help. Princess Rapunzel's eyes were quite similar now. It was a bit... unsettling. "But you are wrong. Tell me, what do you know about my life?"

"Not... much," Elsa managed to say, finally pushing aside Anna's image. "Just that you were kidnapped... and that Prince Eugene reunited you with your parents when you were eighteen. I am sorry by the..."

"Don't be," Rapunzel interrupted her. "From the little bit I heard, your own life has been much harder than mine. But you don't know WHY I was kidnapped, do you? Not because of money or political reasons or something. I was kidnapped because of the magic I was born with."

Elsa inhaled sharply and she felt part of her seat freezing over, but thankfully Rapunzel didn't notice it, so she had enough time to regain control and reverse it. Meanwhile the princess started her rather fantastic tale about her mother eating a magic, sun-kissed plant, the princess herself being born with magic hair which could heal and stop the aging process, she then being kidnapped by Mother Gothel who pretended to be her real mother for eighteen years, while in reality not loving, but only using Rapunzel to regain her youth.

Elsa was not completely sure... her own childhood had left her quite distanced and wary of other people, and as a queen she could not rule out that this story could be a ruse to sign something that contained hidden clauses. And yet... the feelings this foreign princess was putting into the tale seemed genuine... and a part of Elsa WANTED to believe that it was true. She had Anna, who was so very similar to Rapunzel in behavior, and her sister's love was probably way more than she deserved after all she had put Anna through in their childhood... but some things of Elsa's life Anna with her sunny, optimistic nature would, and probably also should never understand, not in detail. But if Princess Rapunzel's tale was true...

The princess continued her story with Prince Eugene entering her tower, their adventurous travel to her home town and her finally reaching her dream of seeing the "lights in the sky" up close. Elsa's eyes were glued to Rapunzel's lips when the girl described how Mother Gothel had deceived her to come with her, Rapunzel then realizing that she was the lost princess and her so-called mother showing her true face. Elsa's heart began to hurt a little when Eugene was dying in Rapunzel's arms, reminding her so much of Anna's sacrifice, also the miracle that followed and saved his life.

"And then Eugene brought me back to the palace... and I finally was reunited with my real parents," Rapunzel ended her story.

"I... I don't know what to say, princess," Elsa managed to utter. She really didn't. All of this sounded too good to be true. An agreement that would benefit Arendelle immensely AND someone who could maybe truly understand Elsa's feelings about her isolation... this felt like a dream. A rather cool dream, she realized – the temperature in the room had dropped a bit and she had to use quite an amount of willpower to raise it again. Fortunately Rapunzel didn't seem to have noticed it. The princess' capacity for enthusiasm seemed to shield her from Elsa's cold for now... something else which reminded Elsa of her own little sister. She had to be careful not to let her feelings cloud her mind, no matter how much she WANTED to like the Coronian princess.

"You don't have to," Rapunzel replied, smiling. "I know this is much to take in. You should first study the trade agreement in detail, although I assure you that there is no catch... at least none that I know of. You can also ask me or Eugene for details about my story, if it sounds unbelievable... but what I really want to say is this." The princess suddenly put her hand on Elsa's, at first being surprised about the cool skin, but then continuing. "You are not alone, Queen Elsa. There ARE some people who can understand what you have gone though in your room during all these years. And if you ever want to talk about it... well, then I would feel honored if you considered me enough of a friend to choose me to talk to."

Elsa took a deep breath. "Thank you," she said, her feelings finally calming down. "I will... no, I HAVE TO study this trade agreement first, as you suggested. But..." She hesitated for a moment. The only person she was really close to, the only one she really had to talk, was Anna. And yet, as much as she cherished the strong bond between her and her little sister, there were some very dark moments in these thirteen years of isolation she would probably never feel comfortable enough to talk about with Anna... and had not her sister herself told her – jokingly, but still – that Elsa was overly dependent on her sometimes and that she needed to make some real friends? She smiled at the foreign princess. "But I won't deny that I WANT both of it to be real... Corona's offer AND your story. For the moment... I invite you to stay here in Arendelle as long as you wish. And I encourage you to spend some time with my sister. You will find that you have much in common with her too... maybe more than with me."

"Oh, I will," Rapunzel agreed. Then she seemed to remember something. "Actually I think we should end our talk soon... Eugene is probably worried sick right now. I think I should go look for him and show him that I am alright." She stood up and prepared to curtsy. "Your Highn..."

"Please," Elsa interrupted her. She was surprised herself. Impetuosity was usually something Anna was in charge of in their family. "Call me Elsa."

Rapunzel was just as surprised, but she immediately smiled again. "Only if you call me Rapunzel."

"I will." Elsa stood up too. "How about we look for my sister and your husband together? I'm pretty sure Anna will have caused at least two international incidents by now, which I will have to apologize for."

Rapunzel laughed. "Oh, believe me, Eugene is perfectly capable of causing those himself when he is under pressure. I guess we will both have to apologize."

"Well, than we should probably not give them any more time. I would truly regret it if Arendelle and Corona were suddenly at war..."

And with that, the queen and the princess left the room, chatting as if they had been friends for a long time already. Elsa was still not utterly convinced... so often in her life her hopes had been crushed, so often things had become worse instead of better, but now she felt like she finally understood why Anna was always so eager to make new friends. When she had finally been allowed to let Anna's love embrace her after her little sister had broken Elsa's curse and ended their misery, she had been overwhelmed by her feelings. She had been sure that she could not possibly endure more warmth than the sun that was her beloved sister.

But she had been wrong. Even though Anna's love seemed endless, Elsa now realized that there still was space for more warmth, for new friends in even her cool heart. And that was why she allowed hope to return into her heart again now, even though it had been ripped out so often. Hope that Rapunzel would indeed become her very first true friend... hope that her future might become even more bright than it was now. Provided that Anna and Prince Eugene had NOT started a war yet.

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Well then. I think the next one will be about Eugene and Kristoff getting tipsy and talking about the girls.


	2. Delicious fantasies

Alright, finally finished. Comedy is a lot more difficult to write than sappy stuff. First of all - thank you all for your reviews! It still took a while, but they made me write faster.

Right... and for all who commented how realistic the first chapter was and how well in character everyone was... this chapter is NOT like that. Crack warning, and you might feel Kristoff and Eugene are heavily OOC (although we don't really KNOW...). Most of the time I write a bit angsty and schmaltzy, like in the first chapter, but since Kristoff and Eugene are drunk here, their talk about their princesses get's a bit more silly this time. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

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**Delicious fantasies**

There was no denying it. Prince Eugene of Corona was drunk. Well, not drunk. Princes and especially former adventurers, charmers and hard-boiled thieves like the legendary Flynn Rider didn't get wasted like common people. That would be really bad for their reputation, people like Flynn Rider were just too awesome to get drunk! But it might not be completely off to note that right now Prince Eugene might be just a bit... tipsy. *hic*

"'nother one?"

Eugene looked into his tankard. It was empty. How had that happened? "Yes, please."

Kristoff took the tankard and refilled it at the beer keg they had brought with them. The blonde guy had been right, this quiet, momentarily not used part of the stables wasn't such a bad place to just lie in the big pile of hay, drink a tankard or ten and relax. Well, the Ice-whatever-the-title-was was a pretty nice guy overall, as Eugene had found out. Rapunzel and him had been staying here in Arendelle for nearly a week now. Queen Elsa, whom Eugene was slowly beginning to trust since she had not frozen him, his wife or anyone else he knew yet, had already signed the trade agreement which Rapunzel had nearly blackmailed her own father to draw up, but his wife seemed to have been right... Rapunzel and the royal sisters of Arendelle had become fast friends in just a matter of days, his cynical outlook had lost to his wife's naïve optimism – again. So they had decided, since the captain of their ship wasn't in a hurry either, that they would stay for a few more days.

Fortunately, since Rapunzel was pretty busy doing princessy stuff with the other two female royals most of the time, Anna's boyfriend Kristoff had turned out to be a nice fellow to hang out with. The blonde guy was a bit too much of a loner-type for Eugene's taste, but after they had realized that they were both commoners who had made their way into a quite dysfunctional royal family – at the time at least –, they had had an immediate connection. Since Kristoff was working outside most of the time, Eugene had taken the opportunity to leave the castle more than once... well, truth be told, the female royals, especially Princess Anna and his wife, were getting along so well that he felt like a fifth wheel most of the time during the day.

Today had been special. Since Eugene was a guest and had been getting a bit bored with the ice business, the blonde guy had decided that he'd take a day off and show Eugene Queen Elsa's Ice Palace. Sure, it had been a bit of a drudgery to get up there, but he wasn't one of those sissy monarchs – he had been Flynn Rider! And boy, had the sight been worth it! Sure, it was a bit of a ruin now, Kristoff had told him that there had been a fight and the queen hadn't fixed the palace after that, but it was still amazing! Alright, Rapunzel's magic healing ability had been incredible as well – and lifesaving! –, but it was hard to believe that a building like this had been built by one person alone, let alone in not even a day, magic or not.

Well, they had to come back eventually. And now here they were, in Kristoff's hiding place, with no other company than Sven and the beer keg. Well... the reindeer was a point that puzzled Eugene a bit. Sure, once you got to know him Kristoff seemed to be a loyal, good-natured guy, but the "talks" with Sven... Alright, Eugene had talked to Maximus too in the past. And why not? The horse was sharp. Mean, but clever. Although he'd never dare putting words in Maximus' mouth – the damn horse would probably stomp him to death. And Rapunzel was still talking to Pascal all the time. But at least he and Rapunzel were not pretending that the animal were actually able to TALK. It was a bit creepy. At least until you'd finished the fifth tankard.

"Here!"

"Thanks!" He even managed to grab the tankard on the second try.

"Y'know... you weren't even bad... out there'n the mountains," Kristoff told him, slurring a little.

"Wha, you had doubts?" Eugene raised his glass so enthusiastically that part of the beer sloshed into the air and nearly hit Sven. The prince grinned apologetically. "Don'tcha remember who I am? 'm the great Flynn Rider!"

"Were." At first Eugene thought that Kristoff had just burped, but then the man clarified. "Were Flynn Rider. Married a princess, 'member?"

"Ah, that's right." If Sven had been actually able to talk he would probably have commented that the grin on Eugene's face was a particularly dopey one. "Married my beautiful wife." When he noticed that his companion had become quiet, he looked at Kristoff. The man seemed to be lost in thoughts. Eugene punched his shoulder. "What's with that long face, man? Ya'll marry your own princess soon 'nough."

Kristoff snorted and took a sip. "Don' know bout that," the blonde man mumbled.

Eugene blinked and tried to fix his eyes on the other man. It was surprisingly difficult. "Whaddaya mean? How long have ya been with princess..." Now what was her name again? His head was a little slow right now...

"Anna."

"Yeah, that's it. So how long? A year or so?"

Kristoff grumbled something and refilled his own tankard. "Eight months," he finally mumbled.

"Well, so whass the problem?" Eugene wasn't sure what had happened. For an hour... or more?... the Ice Harvester and him had had a good time, laughing and joking, and now he suddenly was depressed. Then he grinned. "Are you... too 'fraid to ask?"

"Thass not it!" the other guy slurred and pulled his cap into his face. "It's juss... I'm no prince."

"So?" Eugene shrugged. "Me neither. I mean, I'm now, but I was a wanned... wanted man. When I was Flynn. After I was Eugene."

Kristoff looked at him. "Aren't ya Eugene now?" the man asked. His head seemed a little slow too.

"Sure, again." Eugene didn't really want to talk about that. Talking was kinda hard right now, although he really felt like talking. About funnier things, not sad stuff. "Doen' matter. What's wrong? Don't you love Anna?"

"Sure I do!" The sudden outburst was over as soon as it had begun, and Kristoff sank back into the hay. "But I... I'm not good 'round people... can' dance... and those people inna castle... said something 'bout Anna marrying some prince would benfith the country..."

Eugene thought for a second. "You mean benefit?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," Eugene said and took another sip. He wished he was a bit more... what was the word?... el-o-quent right now. "Well... you're a moron then."

Kristoff sat up and looked at him somewhere between confusion and anger. "Wha' did ya say?" the bigger man demanded to know.

Suddenly Eugene remembered that it was not usually his strategy to anger people who were stronger than him. He grinned. Usually that worked. Or not. "Easy, man. I mean... do ya think she'd be happy? Marrying someone she doen' know?"

Kristoff shrank a bit as the anger left him. "Don' know..." he muttered. Then he altered his voice. "She wouldn' be." Then the blonde guy looked at Sven. "Shut it, Sven! Can talk fer myself!"

Eugene blinked. "Right... an' does she look unhappy when she's with you? Do ya think she doen' really love you?"

Kristoff looked down. "Don' know..." he repeated. Then he switched to Sven's voice again. "Anna always smiles when she's with you." He looked at the reindeer again. "I said shut it, Sven!"

The reindeer was obviously better used to its owner's behavior than Eugene. This guy was nice, but he was more than just a bit nuts. "So less get this straight: What's more important to you, Anna or the kingdom?"

"Anna of course!"

"Well, it doen' look that way!" Eugene shot back, pointing at Kristoff. Unfortunately, he used the hand that was holding his tankard, resulting in some of the beer getting to know the floor better. Still, he couldn't stop now. "You aren't even fightn' for her! Do you really love her?"

"Course I do!" Kristoff banged his fist on the floor. The tankard he had been holding barely survived that treatment, but his beer used the chance to have a ménage à trois with Eugene's ex-beer and the floor.

„Then show her! I mean... do ya think everyone was happy when I married Rapunzel?" Oh, he remembered! Quite some people had been furious, mainly because he had stolen from them in the past. „And you shoulda seen these trashi... no, traditional guys. Telling the king that he should marry off the daughter he hadn't seen in eighteen years to some stranger. Gotta admit, ol' Thomas stayed calm and diplomatic, but he told these guys that Rapunzel had had a horrible childhood and he'd be damned if he destroyed her happiness now. And that their countries and Corona had been best buddies when Rapunzel was gone and why that should now suddenly change just 'cause she was back?" He grinned. "Didn't really have much to say after that, these guys."

Kristoff seemed a bit overwhelmed, but he looked less sad. "Well... maybe..."

"Don' maybe me!" Eugene shouted. "Do you think the queen wantsa marry off the princess to some stranger?"

"No!" Kristoff shouted back, causing Sven to raise a brow and look at them reproachfully. They didn't notice. "Elsa would never do that! She loves Anna!"

"See?" Eugene grinned again. He had won! "And now Corona 'n Arendelle have a new trade greedment... no, agreement, sorry. So there may not even be a need to marry off the princess, even if the queen did want to. Have a little hope, man!"

Kristoff blinked, but then he chuckled. He clapped Eugene on the shoulder – fortunately using the hand without tankard – and laughed when the other man winced. "I guess you're right," he told the other man. "I got it really good, don't I? Yer a good man, Flynn Rider!"

"It's Eugene."

Kristoff frowned. "Wait, now it's Eugene again?"

"Yeah, again," Eugene sighed. Kristoff was not the brightest bulb in the box, but right now all this thinking made his own head hurt too. He decided against ordering another beer and just fell back into the hay. He felt Kristoff doing the same a few moments later. For a few minutes they enjoyed the calm which was just interrupted by Sven's chewing once in a while.

"Hey, Eugene?"

Eugene's eyes fluttered. Had he nearly fallen asleep? He was glad that Kristoff had said something. He didn't want to look like a lightweight. "Hmm?"

"Ya know... did you change... you and your princess?" Kristoff's voice didn't sound sad anymore at least... just curious. And he still slurred of course.

"Change?" he wondered. "You mean... 'tween when we met and now?" He remembered his and Rapunzel's first meeting and winced when thinking of the frying pan of pain. "Yeeeeeah, I think we are a lil' different now. I mean, when we met she just hired me to be her guide and now..."

"Whoa, whoa," Kristoff interrupted him and turned around to face the other man. "She hired you?"

"Yeah, she wanned to see this lantern show of her parents and stuff, but didn't know howta get there," Eugene explained, grinning. "Fort'nately she had Flynn Rider as a guide."

Kristoff tilted his head, confused. "Now Rider again?" Then he shrugged. "Nevermind. You know what? Anna an' me met like that too! She needed to get to her sisser's palace and I got her there."

"Really? Thass awesome!" Eugene offered to high five and the two man just barely missed. But they laughed it off and patted on each other's shoulders. "See, you're just like me! You'll have no problems with marryin' Anna!"

"Yeah, 'bout that..." Now Kristoff seemed to search for words. "See, I know I've gotta change for Anna... livin' inna castle, dressin' up formally... ya know... did all of that change your... private time with your princess?"

With his head feeling a bit heavy right now, Eugene didn't immediately grasp what the blonde man meant. "Private...? Whoa!" He became a bit more sober. "Hey, do you think Thomas 'n Primrose would've let me do ANYTHING more private than kissing with their daughter at first? I mean, they'd lost her for eighteen years, there was no WAY for... 'private time' before our wedding night." He laughed a bit sheepishly. "Sides, Rapunzel was a virgin and pretty romantic. Even if I had pushed her, she'd have wanned to wait anyway."

"Yeah, yeah, I understand," Kristoff said a bit dismissively. "But y'know... has your 'lationship changed since then?"

"Hey, we'ven't been married THAT long!" Now Eugene's head started to get fuzzy again. Oh well, it wasn't really a bad feeling. He giggled. "Well, I guess it's not exactly like our first time anymore..."

"Oh?" Now Kristoff was interested. He started grinning. "Do tell!"

"Mmm, I don'now, man... that was my wedding night..."

"Oh come on," Kristoff encouraged him, gently punching his shoulder. "We're buddies, 'member?"

Eugene scratched his head. Had he been sober, he would have stopped right here, but all the beer was making him bold. He shrugged. "Weeeeell, I guess yer right. You know... Rapunzel 'n I gettin' into our room after the ceremony... She was so beautiful, I tell ya, but so nervous. Her mom and her had hardly any time to bond, y'know, so Primrose hadn't really told her much 'bout wedding night... if any." He swallowed, but he didn't want to look bad in front of his buddy. "Well, 'twas all a bit awkward, but then we're in the bed... and she's still nervous 'n all, and I try to guide her 'n assure her that I don' expect her to be perfect and stuff... 'n then we undress and she's startin' to relax finally..." He grimaced. "Well, and then suddenly the damn lizard was there."

Kristoff blinked. "Lizard?" he repeated, not understanding.

"Yeah, I know, he's actually a chum... chameleon, I mean." Eugene laughed, a bit embarrassed. "You see, me 'n my wife were finally getting to the interestin' part of the night, she was gettin' a little adventurous... and then suddenly we see this damn chameleon sitting on the pillow, gawking at us!"

"In your wedding bed?" Kristoff was looking at him a bit strangely.

"Yeah, can you believe it? And he's also Rapunzel's best friend, they grew up together..."

"Wait, wait," Kristoff interrupted him. "So you were in bed... with your wife AND her best friend? Who'se a cha... chum... a lizard?"

Eugene stared at him, but then he realized what he had just said. "Oh, wait, NO! We weren't in bed WITH Pascal, he was just sitting on the pillow! There's no WAY..."

"Hey, hey, it's okay, I understand," Kristoff tried to calm him down. "I mean, my family... they're love experts, y'know? An' they told me not to judge what other people call love an' stuff..."

"Oh for..." Eugene sighed. "Pascal was SPYING on us, get it? Nothin' else! And Rapunzel was mortified and I shooed the damn lizard out of the room and... well, let's say it took a while until she had calmed down and we could... continue." He rubbed his head. "All I wanna say is... it wasn't a perfect wedding night. It's gotten better since then."

"So no more liz...?"

"NO!"

"Alright, alright. Easy, buddy." For a moment Kristoff had this stupid smile on his face that made Eugene want to punch him, but then he became serious again. "Well... since we're so similar, maybe it'll get better with Anna 'n me too..."

"Hu?" Eugene made. "What's wrong, man?"

"'S not really wrong, y'know," Kristoff said, scratching his head. "'S just... Anna's great. She's all I ever wanted... gorgeous, funny, outgoin'... best girlfriend I could wish for. I juss wished... we could go all the way."

"What?" His head was still a bit slow. MAYBE he'd drunk a bit too much. "You mean you've never...?"

"No," Kristoff mumbled. "We've spent a few nights together... and touching 'n kissing 'n all that stuff... but we've never... not ALL the way, y'know?"

Eugene blinked, but then he showed a sly smile. "Lemme guess," he said. "The queen."

"Yeah." Kristoff looked down. "Elsa's made it pretty clear that some very 'mportant parts of me would suffer if Anna got pregnant 'fore we're married..." He broke off. "'S juss not fair..."

"Not fair?" Eugene raised an eyebrow. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Nah, forget it," Kristoff tried to evade the question. "'S not important."

"Oh, come on man!" Eugene protested. "I told you 'bout my wedding night! What about being buddies?"

"Yeah... it's juss not fair... y'know, Elsa 'n Anna spend just as many nights together as Anna 'n me."

"So what?" Eugene didn't really see a problem. "From what I've heard, they've every right to recol... reconnect after all these years."

"Sure, sure... 's just they are so CLOSE... hugging an' pecks onna cheek all the time, giggling like little girls, 'n Anna once told me that Elsa's gotten addicted to touchin' EVERYTHING since she's now 'llowed to finally..." Kristoff looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Makes you wonder what really happens du'ing these sleepovers..."

For a moment Eugene didn't understand. Then his eyes widened. "Wait a... Are you talkin' 'bout..." Kristoff nodded. "I... Aren't they SISTERS? Blood-related and all?"

The blonde guy nodded again, now grinning. WHY was he grinning? "Yepp."

"But... that's..."

"... hot, isn't it?" The grin became wider. "I mean, I couldn't even be mad at them if I wanned to... they've earned every bit of happiness they can get after their sad childhood... and they're both GORGEOUS. I mean, I LOVE Anna, but Elsa's really hot too." The grin vanished and the guy frowned. "Well, if a Snow Queen CAN be hot..."

Eugene couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're tellin' me that you think that they are..."

"I've no idea," Kristoff interrupted and the dopey grin reappeared. "But it's really hot to imagine, ain't it? Don't you?"

The were many things running through Eugene's aching head right now, but he chose the easy way out. "Rapunzel doesn't have any sisters," he replied.

"Oh, yeah." Kristoff shrugged. "Well, thass your loss then."

Eugene felt quite uncomfortable suddenly. He stood up. It was just a BIT difficult. "Look, man, I think I gotta visit the bathroom..."

"Right," Kristoff said and fell back into the hay, pulling his cap over his eyes. "Gotta come back soon, you hear. Haven't finished the keg yet."

"Sure," Eugene mumbled while he tried to get away as fast as possible. The last thing he heard before he left the stables was Sven's voice.

"You really HAD to tell him 'bout the sisters, didn't ya?"

* * *

This guy was... ugh! Don't make a mistake, Eugene was a young man, and he HAD been attracted to the fair sex long before he had met his wife. And yes, he HAD had fantasies about two girls once in a while. Hadn't every guy? But the princess and the queen... UGH! Sure, they were both quite a sight... the princess was charming, energetic, funny and so much like Rapunzel in behavior that they could be sisters, and the queen... she was calm, intelligent, regal and yes, beautiful. But really, fantasizing about SISTERS? What was WRONG with...?

"Mmmmmhh..."

He blinked. Where had that moan come from? Where was he anyway? He looked around. How had he gotten back into the main building of the castle? He must have been quite lost in thought. Then he realized where he was... he was standing right next to the queen's private chambers. No, that couldn't be right... why would the queen...?

"Oh, Elsa..."

Eugene's eyes widened and he stared at the door. Was he more drunk than he had thought? Or had that REALLY been Princess Anna's voice? Moaning with obvious pleasure?

Someone giggled. "Mh, you really like this, do you?" he now heard Queen Elsa's soft, amused voice.

Eugene pressed his ear against the door. He couldn't believe this. Had Kristoff been right all along? … Was this just the blood rushing in his ears or had he heard licking sounds?

"Oh yes!" Was Princess Anna... PANTING? He blushed. "I need more! More!"

"Mmm, no, I don't think so. You're not asking nicely." Now the queen was obviously teasing her sister, her voice sounding even more amused than before. Just WHAT was going on in there? … And now he was SURE that these were licking sounds!

"Oh, Elsa, come on!" The voice of the princess was whiny now, with a hint of desperate begging. Eugene hated to admit it, but suddenly he could understand Kristoff's position a whole l... well, a little bit better. Was it getting hotter in here? "Do it! Do the magic! Pleeeeeease!"

"Nonono, I think you've had enough..."

"Elsaaaaaaaa..."

"Oh please, Elsa, do it! It's so good!"

Eugene's jaw dropped. That hadn't been Anna's voice... or Elsa's! Matter of fact, this voice was...

The queen laughed. "My, my, you two are quite insatiable, aren't you?" Elsa almost... purred. "Well then..."

His head had needed a while to finish the thought, with all the beer in it and so much blood needed elsewhere, but now he blurted it out: "Rapunzel?"

"Eugene?"

Moments later the door was opened and Eugene stumbled into the arms of his surprised wife.

"Eugene? What are you doing here?"

"Well, I... Kristoff and I talked... and then... umm..."

Rapunzel wrinkled her nose. "Eugene, are you DRUNK?"

"Juss a little... no, that's not important! What are you DOING here?" He finally managed to stand upright again and looked around. Queen Elsa and Princess Anna were sitting on the ground on large pillows, looking at him questioningly. Between them was a bowl of chocolate milk and the princess as holding a little glass dish filled with... well, it looked like a creamy mixture of chocolate milk and crushed ice.

"Uh, please don't breathe into my face right now," his wife ordered. "What we were doing? Well, Anna and Elsa invented this. They call it Chocolate Ice Cream. Eugene, we NEED this in Corona! It's DELICIOUS!"

"Uhm... it is?" he asked rather dumbly. Somehow this whole situation had become quite... surreal.

Rapunzel sighed and looked back. "Forgive me, but I think I need to put Eugene to bed. It's getting late anyway. Thank you for the ice cream, Elsa. It's really, really good."

"Don't mention it," the queen replied, smiling because of the whole situation.

"Seems like you and Kristoff had quite some fun, eh Eugene?" Anna interjected while taking another spoonful of this... ice cream.

"Uh... yeah, guess so," Eugene mumbled while his wife dragged him away. "G'night."

"We will talk about this, Eugene," Rapunzel whispered, sounding quite annoyed. But also a bit... energetic? He remembered that sugar had this effect on his wife. "That was really embarrassing. What were you doing in front of that door anyway?"

Strange... somehow Eugene didn't mind telling his wife what he had heard through that door. He started grinning. Actually this could lead to a very interesting night... he might even have to thank Kristoff later. He and Rapunzel should really discuss this very... thoroughly.

* * *

Back in the room Anna looked at her sister. "That was strange," she commented, finishing her portion of ice cream.

"It was," Elsa agreed, eying her little sister's mouth. "Do you really want another portion?"

"Oh yes, pretty, pretty please, my dearly beloved sister!" Anna exclaimed while clasping her hands and winking at her sister pleadingly, causing Elsa to laugh.

"Well, alright, one last time," she agreed and froze the part of the bowl closest to Anna. "But don't you worry about Kristoff?"

Anna harrumphed while she put another portion of ice cream into her glass dish. "If he's as drunk as Eugene right now then I very much prefer the company of my dear big sister."

"Wow, I feel so special now," Elsa commented, rolling her eyes but also smiling. "Actually I meant, what if he doesn't like you anyone once you've gotten fat from eating so much ice cream?"

Her little sister harrumphed again, although that didn't stop her from starting to eat. "If he's allowed to drink enough beer to get drunk," she declared, "then he's NOT allowed to complain about me eating my sister's delicious cream."

There was a pause.

"Anna... do you have any idea how wrong that just sounded?"

* * *

There's so much Elsanna out there, someone HAD to make a parody. The next chapter will be about Anna and Rapunzel, I think... a more serious one about isolation.


	3. Demons of the past

Lord Destroyer: It's not like I dislike Elsanna per se, I get where it's coming from... two girls who are very close are forced apart, without being able to form new bonds with other humans to help them move on, and when they meet again, they see a grown-up stranger whom they have been yearning for a long time... the last sentence basically screams romantic love. I just think that not so many fics display the mental barriers very well which you'd have to overcome to embrace an incestual relationship when you've grown up in a very traditional, probably religious society... and the fact that your people might suffer when word gets out and other countries break off relations with Arendelle because of you. But enough of this.

This chapter is about Elsa and Anna once again drifting apart... and only someone who understands both of them might be able to help. Someone like Rapunzel. Enjoy!

* * *

**Demons from the past**

"I won!"

Princess Rapunzel steadied her horse and yanked her hand high into the air, proclaiming victory. She had won the race, and she had not even used Maximus! Well, if she had, the race would have been pretty much a joke anyway.

"No fair," her opponent complained when she arrived a few seconds later. "You knew the terrain better than me!"

"And I've told you that beforehand," Rapunzel reminded her, still smiling a bit smugly. "And what did you say? That that's okay because you are the best rider in Arendelle, Anna."

The other princess was currently pouting. "Well yes, but my country is pretty much all mountain. We've got a few flat spots where you can ride really fast, but pretty much all horses in Arendelle are work animals."

Rapunzel shrugged and dismounted, patting her horse afterwards. "Well, if that's the case then you probably shouldn't have bragged like that," she advised the other girl. "Which means that the Chocolate Ice Cream is all mine."

"It's not fair," Anna grumbled and dismounted too. "If there hadn't been this many sharp bends, I would have won."

"Now, Anna, don't be a sore loser," Rapunzel softly chided the other princess. "You have a constant supply of ice cream in Arendelle thanks to your sister. We don't have that much ice here in Corona now that it's summer."

"Yes, yes, I know," Anna sighed and looked at Rapunzel's saddlebag longingly. "You won, it's your's." Then she looked around. "But you didn't exaggerate... this wood is really beautiful in this season. I mean, I guess it's beautiful in whatever season, but it's so lively now and... ahem, where will we have our picnic?"

Rapunzel giggled. Like most people she found Anna's tendency to stumble over her own words very charming. She led her horse to what looked like a curtain of ivy. "Come here," she whispered conspiratorially. "You'll like it." With that she walked through the curtain.

Anna blinked. She had assumed that there was rock behind the ivy, but now that she looked closer, there seemed to be a tunnel. She grinned. She loved secret places! She pushed the ivy aside and followed her friend. And when she reached the end of the tunnel, where Rapunzel was already waiting, she gasped.

"Are you impressed?" Rapunzel asked although the answer was quite obvious.

"This is beautiful!" Anna breathed. The small, sunny valley was surrounded by mountains. The water came from a waterfall that ended in a small river. The rest of the place was filled with grass, trees and flowers... well, everything except the old tower. "So... this is where you grew up?"

"Yes." Rapunzel's voice had become melancholic as she stared at the tower. Yes, it had been her prison... but until she had found out the truth, it had also been her only home, where she played, learned to cook, to paint, became friends with Pascal... there were so many memories here. She blinked when she suddenly felt a soft touch on her shoulder. When she turned around, Anna was looking at her with concern.

"You know, if it's too painful for you, we can have our picnic somewhere else," the other princess suggested. "I wouldn't mind."

Rapunzel smiled. That was just so Anna... always wanting to make everyone happy. She put her hand on her friend's. "It's alright," she said. "It is not painful... just a bit strange now that I don't live here anymore. And you won't find a better place to have a picnic than here."

"Well, if you are sure..."

"I am," Rapunzel assured her companion and opened her saddlebag. "I think the blanket is in your bag..."

So they set up their picnic blanket on a particular nice, sunny spot near the river and put out all the food they had brought with them. Rapunzel had to smile when Anna insisted on decorating their picnic place with flowers – she had even brought a small vase. And the strawberry blonde princess even insisted that their sacrifice would not be in vain, since she would take them back to the castle to please the people there. Anna liked beauty, especially natural beauty, just as much as Rapunzel did, one of the many reasons why they were so much alike. Many people had jokingly told Rapunzel that Anna and her seemed more like sisters than Anna and Elsa. She disagreed. Over the course of the last two years she had formed an equally strong bond with both Arendelle sisters, although they could only visit each other for a few weeks in a year.

The people were right, Anna and her were both lively, outgoing, curious, and on occasion a bit childish. Whenever they were together, there would always be spontaneous trips, trying out new ways to have fun and laughter everywhere. But what most people didn't know was that Rapunzel's friendship with Elsa was equally deep. Whenever they had the chance to speak in private, she and the queen would share stories about their years in isolation... some of which they had not even shared with Eugene, Rapunzel's parents and Anna respectively. Some of the darker tales of Elsa's isolation years were truly frightening... days when she had contemplated freezing the whole castle and everyone inside, so that the misery of her family would end, days when suicide had been an alluring, nearly irresistible option, days when Elsa had wished that Anna would vanish forever, so that she would not be tormented by her sister's voice anymore. Those had reminded Rapunzel of her own buried secrets... days when her optimism had left her, when she had been seriously tempted to blackmail Gothel by threatening to cut off her hair if her "mother" didn't take her to the lights in the sky, and damn the consequences. Or when she, although far less often then Elsa, had asked herself if death would grant her the freedom she would maybe never have in life...

And even though the two sisters had become some of her closest friends, even if they lived in different countries... how could anyone say that Anna and her looked more like sisters than Anna and Elsa? Had these people never seen the loving glances? The long, gentle hugs? Had they not heard the affectionate banter? And had they not noticed how each sister's face would lighten up at least slightly whenever her sibling would enter the room? Her friendship with the Arendelle sisters, deep as it may be, and their love for each other were on a whole different level. It was inspiring actually... the tragedies Elsa and Anna had gone through before Anna had fought her way back to Elsa's side had made Rapunzel more aware that her own parents, while she was now happily reunited with them, would not be with her forever... and that every single moment with them had to be cherished, before it was just her and Eugene eventually. She was deeply thankful for this realization.

"So... this was what you saw every day," Anna suddenly started a conversation. Rapunzel looked up. Anna was staring at the tower. "May I ask you something, Rapunzel?"

Rapunzel took a bite from one of their sandwiches. "Of course."

Now Anna looked at her. "When you went out into the world with Eugene for the first time... how did that feel?"

Rapunzel raised her eyebrow. She hadn't really expected that. "Overwhelmed," she answered after some moments of thinking. "I felt guilty that I had acted against Gothel's orders. Excited about all the new things. Sad that I hadn't been able to convince Gothel and had to act behind her back. Happy that my dream would be fulfilled." She shrugged. "Why are you asking?"

"I wonder if that's how Elsa felt when she left Arendelle and built her Ice Palace," Anna said quietly.

Rapunzel stayed quiet for a moment. She put away the sandwich. "Alright, Anna. What do you want to talk about?"

Anna opened her mouth, presumably to ask why Rapunzel assumed she wanted to talk about something specific, but then she closed it again and looked at the brown-haired princess bashfully. "Am I really that easy to see through?"

"We both are, when we are as melancholic as you right now," Rapunzel explained. "It's simply not our nature. But I knew even before that something was up, Anna. I am your friend. I've seen the nervous glances between you and Kristoff. And when you asked me to have a picnic far away from the castle... well, I had my suspicions."

"Great," Anna groaned and ruffled her hair. "What else did I tell you without saying something?"

"We'll talk about Elsa. My guess is that something came in between you."

Anna gawked at her. "And how did you know THAT?"

Rapunzel grinned. "Aside from your comment about Elsa earlier? If it was about anything else, you could have talked about it with Kristoff or Elsa." She became serious. "But there are some things about Elsa that I probably understand better than anyone. That's why I guess that we will talk about those."

For one more moment Anna looked annoyed, but then she suddenly became sad. It was... unsettling, if you knew how happy Anna was usually. "You are right," Anna mumbled. "You know Elsa really well." She looked at the tower again. "Maybe better than I do."

That had sounded... depressed. Which as almost frightening. The only time when Anna had been like that, that Rapunzel knew of at least, had been in the infamous thirteen years in which the doors of the castle had been closed. Rapunzel put her hand on Anna's. "Anna, talk to me," she begged quietly. "Tell me what's wrong."

"It's..." Anna sighed. "I... I feel kinda stupid. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing and ruining a great day..."

"It's bothering you," Rapunzel interrupted her before Anna could start rambling. "Anna, I'm your friend. Please let me help you."

"It..." Anna took a deep breath. "It feels like Elsa is shutting me out again."

The optimistic part of her nature wanted to disagree immediately... but the part of Rapunzel that still remembered the taste of her own loneliness knew that Elsa would probably always be at least a little insecure around Anna... at least this little part deep inside of her that was also in Rapunzel, which told her that it was better to distance yourself from your loved ones than to lose them altogether and be hurt again. Rapunzel didn't want to believe that Elsa had fallen prey to this demon of her past again, for whatever reason... but sadly she knew very well that it was not impossible.

"And why do you think that, Anna?" she asked her friend, using her softest voice. In Rapunzel's opinion Elsa had suffered more throughout her childhood than Anna and her combined... she shuddered at that thought. And she admired Elsa for living through all of that. But Anna's childhood, although less restricted, had also been much sadder than her own, because Anna had tasted the joy of sisterhood, and then it had been ripped away from her without any explanation. Rapunzel, as lonely as she had been, at least hadn't known anyone she could have missed. The deeper their friendship became, the more Rapunzel hated to see the sisters suffer.

Now Anna was biting on her lip. "She's touching me differently," she mumbled. Then she laughed nervously. "See, I told you it sounded ridiculous."

"And how is it different?" Rapunzel asked, staying calm.

"Well... after the coronation disaster was resolved, Elsa developed a passion for touching things. She hadn't allowed herself to do so for so very long, so then she enjoyed running her fingers over furniture, walls, plants, fabrics... practically everything. But she was very hesitant to touch humans... except me." A small smile crept on Anna's face, perhaps without her realizing it. "She'd run her fingers through my hair. We'd hold hands... for hours sometimes. We'd exchange kisses. We'd hug each other. Most of the time I initiated it, but often I also had to end our contact since she didn't want to let go of me. And now... we still do these things. But they have become short, nearly like a matter of courtesy... like we weren't sisters anymore, but mere friends. And it's always her ending them, even if I don't want to let her go." Anna looked at the other princess. "I sound pathetic, don't I?"

"That's not all of it, is it?" Rapunzel inquired. She could feel that Anna was not done yet.

Anna looked down again. "No," she said. "Arendelle... it has really gotten better. Thanks to Corona of course. But right now we are even talking with Weselton again. Seems they have realized finally that they were richer when they did business with us. And now even the most stubborn people have accepted that Elsa is not a witch who just pretends to be good. And most of the royal stuff that had accumulated since the death of our parents is gone, so Elsa should have more spare time now... but she hasn't." Anna grimaced. "At least not for me. I mean, at one time I even used to help her with her daily correspondence... I couldn't do much, I was a pretty bad student all my life, but we'd always find a letter from a not so important duchy or so which I would answer. She'd read my letter of course, but she trusted me with it generally... and that way we'd work, but we were also spending time together." Anna sniffed. "And now she says that there isn't much to do anymore, and that it's mostly important things that should be handled by the queen herself, and that I should just go and enjoy the day."

"Maybe she thinks you didn't really enjoy the work?" Rapunzel questioned.

"I didn't," Anna confirmed. Was it just the light or was there more liquid in her eyes that was reflecting the sunlight? "I told her that. But I also told her that I wasn't bothered by it because we spent time together that way. And still she said that there was not enough for me to do and she would call me if there was." She laughed bitterly. "Which, of course, is never the case."

"But you still talk with each other?" Rapunzel went on. She didn't like what she was hearing. Sure, Anna often went overboard with everything, including suspicions. But to reduce the optimistic, cheerful girl she knew to this... there had to be some truth to it, and it had also probably been going on for a while. "I mean, it's not like there are closed doors again?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, we do. But..." She sighed. "It's so... official. Elsa doesn't actively evade me, we talk when we are eating, we talk when we meet during the day... we talk about her duties, we talk about what Kristoff and I have planned to do, about Olaf's latest shenanigans..." For a moment Anna was searching for words... which was VERY unusual indeed. "There just is no... girl talk anymore," she finally concluded. "Whenever I bring up our past or our relationship in the present, she somehow changes the subject. She's way better than me in controlling a dialogue. And when I call her out on it, ask her why she is evading me, then there suddenly is something else to do. Sorry, Anna, but I have to prepare myself for this very important meeting, we'll talk about it later."

Rapunzel flinched at the bitterness when Anna imitated her sister's speech. Still, she had to make sure. "Anna... it's not like I don't believe you... but COULD all this possibly be just a misunderstanding? Maybe Elsa is just stressed because of something, or maybe she thinks that she is hogging all your time and that you and Kristoff should spend more time together..."

"Hah! As if she hadn't already made sure of that!" Anna threw her hands into the air. "Do you know how many trips through all of Arendelle Kristoff and I have made – by sled, horse and ship – because Elsa thinks that the people should see the royal family more often? Or how often she urges me to spend a whole day with the people in the town for the same reason? Or do you know that just two months ago, right after we had come back from visiting the trolls, she sent me and Kristoff to Enchancia as representatives of Arendelle at King Roland's and Queen Miranda's wedding for two whole weeks? And after that, when I asked her if we maybe should visit you again, she was ecstatic and set up the soonest possible date..." Anna snorted. And she didn't even seem to notice that she was now crushing the flower she had picked up. "For me and Kristoff only of course. As I already told you, she is looking forward to see you again when you visit us in winter, but 'a kingdom doesn't run itself'." Anna paused for a second, realized what she had done to the flower and guiltily put it away. When she looked at Rapunzel, there now was a real tear running down her cheek. "It's like she doesn't even want us to live in the same building anymore... sometimes I feel like a stranger in my own home, Rapunzel. I just don't know what to do."

Rapunzel put her hand on Anna's again and squeezed it gently. She was convinced now that something was very wrong. As long as she had known the sisters, they had been closer than any other siblings she knew, and not just because they were each other's only left family member. Elsa, since her role as a queen and her shy personality prevented her from making as many friends as her outgoing sister, was very dependent on Anna's love and trust which had helped her gain control over her magic in the first place. And Anna needed someone like Elsa or Kristoff to keep her grounded... without them disasters like Hans or riding right into a blizzard without an escort happened. She squinted her eyes. Wait a second...

"Anna, how long has this been going on?" she asked.

Anna looked at her curiously. "I don't know... a few months."

"Do you think it could have started... after you and Kristoff got married?"

Anna blinked. "What? You mean... you think that Elsa is jealous? Of Kristoff?" She laughed. "Come on, that's ridiculous."

"I don't mean jealous," Rapunzel corrected. She remembered the marriage... Anna had been glowing with happiness back then, and Elsa had seemed happy too, with a bit of melancholy mixed into it, because her baby sister had grown up so much... until this one moment. Rapunzel had noticed it, but she hadn't thought it was anything serious. Until now. "Anna... surely Elsa has told you many times how important you are to her?"

Anna blushed a bit. "Of course. But what has that to do with...?"

"Because of something she told me once," Rapunzel interrupted her. "The thing Elsa regrets most in her life... not being able to be your big sister."

"But she..."

"Anna!" Rapunzel's stare made Anna close her mouth. Good. This was important. "I know that it was not Elsa's fault, and she knows it too. But she can't help but feel sad about how much she missed. She told me how much you adored her when you were young... and that your parents told her that she as your big sister would be your role model and also the one to protect you from your own recklessness. And she took those words to heart. Before the accident she swore that she would always be there when you needed her... she'd help you in school, she'd teach you how to be a graceful and respected princess and she'd be responsible so that you two would still have fun, but you would not endanger yourself." She made a slight pause. "And after the accident... she REALLY focused on the last part. Since she herself was the danger now, she would be responsible and not come near you, no matter how unhappy that would make her."

"But what does that have to do with now?" Anna asked.

Rapunzel took a breath. "Anna, Elsa told me how overjoyed she was when you could act as real sisters again after the coronation incident. Surely you've noticed that. She had gotten a second chance – you could have fun together again, she could still teach you some things at least, and most importantly she now had the means to protect you from nearly any danger." Rapunzel looked at Anna intensely. "Anna, you are the single most important being in Elsa's world – you'll probably always be. You can nearly call her desire to see you happy and safe an obsession. And then... well, then her baby sister tells Elsa that she wants to marry Kristoff. And Kristoff is a good man, he loves Anna and he will take good care of her. So Elsa is happy for you. And then, when Kristoff recites his wedding vow, she hears him say that from this day on he vows to love you, honor you... and protect you."

For a moment Anna didn't understand. Then her eyes became big. "Wait a second... you think that Elsa believes she has been replaced? That's ridiculous!"

"Anna, I'm only speculating here," Rapunzel tried to calm her friend down. "But if Elsa has fallen back into the thinking patterns of her isolation years, everything you've told me would make sense. Think about it. Elsa hears that Kristoff will protect you now. Kristoff, whom you have started a family with... a new family that has not hurt you before, that has not been responsible for a decade of loneliness. If I'm right than Elsa has convinced herself that for you to have a happy family life, she as the cause of your painful past has to stand aside... just like in your childhood, when she had convinced herself that your safety was more important than her own happiness."

"But I wasn't happy then," Anna whispered and looked down. A tear fell on her lap. "I thought that she didn't care about me at all while she was sacrificing so much to keep me safe." She looked at Rapunzel with tears in her eyes. "How? How can she even THINK that making even more sacrifices would be a GOOD thing? That this would make me HAPPY?"

Rapunzel embraced the other princess. "Anna, back then Elsa HAD to think like this, HAD to find a reason for her isolation, or she would have gone crazy. You HAD to be safe, so her isolation was RIGHT. And if someone thinks like that for the majority of her life... then it's very easy to fall back into that kind of thinking. It's not Elsa's fault, it's just deeply ingrained in her."

Anna embraced her too... and Rapunzel grimaced when the other girl used all her strength. "But how can I END this?" she asked quietly. "I can't be happy when Elsa's sacrificing her own happiness... and for such a stupid reason nonetheless."

"You have to tell her that, Anna," Rapunzel answered, rubbing Anna's back soothingly. "Elsa is probably deeply convinced that she is doing the right thing, so you have to be blunt. You have to corner her, call her out on what she is doing, why she is doing it and tell her that she is hurting you."

Suddenly she was pushed away and Anna looked at her, horrified. "I can't do that!"

"Why not?" Rapunzel was perplexed. Anna was a brave girl. Why would she be scared by a simple talk?

"It's... everybody thinks that Elsa is strong and composed... and she usually is. You know that of course," Anna quickly added, but – amazingly – stopped her rambling nearly as soon as it started. Her eyes became soft. "But she is not when she is with me. Then she is gentle and sweet and... vulnerable." She paused for a second, and when she continued, her voice had a guilty undertone. "And after the accident I was the one constantly hurting her with my pleading and begging to come out when she was already in pain."

"Anna, that wasn't your fault."

"I know that." Anna bit on her lip. "I... just never want to hurt Elsa again."

Rapunzel embraced Anna's hands with her own. "Anna, if you don't, then Elsa will not change her behavior. Remember, she thinks that she is doing what is right for you. Think of your future. What about your children? Do you want to tell them 'Let's visit your loving aunt Elsa?' or do you want to say 'Oh yes, the queen is your aunt, my sister. But we don't speak with each other.'?"

Anna looked into her eyes. She sighed. "You are right. This can't go on. I'll bring Elsa to her senses, no matter what it takes." Then, finally, a true smile. "Thank you, Rapunzel. You are the greatest friend anyone could wish for."

Rapunzel smiled back. "Well, nothing feels better than being able to help a friend," she replied. "So... my pleasure."

An ironic smile replaced the true one on Anna's face. "Still... it's unfair that you know my own sister better than me. You make me look really bad."

Rapunzel grinned. "I just know you so well because you are both so similar to me... I mean, different sides of me."

"And that's why both Elsa and I love to have you around," Anna said warmly. Then she suddenly looked at Rapunzel sheepishly. "Speaking of having you around..."

Rapunzel raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess: You want to invite me to spontaneously accompany you on your journey home to Arendelle because you don't want to face Elsa alone?" she guessed, still smiling.

Anna harrumphed. "I'm offended that you would insinuate something like this," she claimed theatrically. "I'm only thinking of poor Pascal – since you normally visit us in winter, it's always too cold for the poor little guy. If you visited us right now, he could finally witness Arendelle's beauty."

Now Rapunzel laughed out loud. You just couldn't stay angry at Anna... or in her case even GET angry. Arendelle's princess was just... unique. "And none of us would want to disappoint poor Pascal, of course not!" she confirmed, still snickering. "I guess I have no choice but to inform Eugene of our travel plans as soon as we get back to the castle."

"Yay! You're visiting Arendelle!" Anna cheered. "That needs to be celebrated! With ice cream!"

"Which I won, remember?" Rapunzel reminded her friend. Still, she was glad. This finally was the Anna she knew again.

"Oh..." And now she was a picture of misery again. Fortunately it was easy to tell that this time it was a fake. "Yeah..."

"But you know what?" Rapunzel asked, grinning. "I'll share it with you. Since we are going to force Elsa to make tons of ice cream once we are in Arendelle. AND since we are such good friends."

Anna's grin outshone the sun. "Best friends!" she agreed.

The rest of the day was pure harmony... until the two princesses got back to the Coronian castle and put everyone in a flurry with the order to prepare their whole luggage, their ship and – if they didn't react soon enough – their very astonished husbands for their departure to Arendelle on the very next morning.

* * *

Gosh, what am I doing to these poor women? The next one will probably be a lighter one, maybe Hook Hand/Kristoff or Maximus/Sven.


	4. Sugar and carrots

mariasantara: Sorry, took longer than I thought. And yeah, Kristoff will be better in the next chapter than in the second one.

Lord Destroyer & GeekyChic123: Don't worry, although I MIGHT experiment with Elsanna in the future, this FF won't go into that territory.

Killer Sand Shadow: There will be at least one more chapter with Elsa and Eugene, I currently have no ideas for more... but I think about writing one about the Flynn Rider whom Eugene read about as a kid and the Snow King and the Spring Maiden from my other story, as a bonus chapter. Do you think that would be worth writing?

This one is about Sven and Maximus "talking" about Kristoff and Eugene. I like about them that they are not stereotypical speaking Disney animals, so there is no real dialogue, but more some kind of "interior dialogue"... well it's hard to describe. Read and see if you like it.

* * *

**Sugar and carrots**

Maximus, the Captain of the Guard of Corona, nightmare – or rather nightstallion – of all evildoers, foremost and fearless defender of the royal family, decided that he didn't really like snow. Oh, he certainly wasn't afraid of or even truly bothered by it. After all, what was that bit of frozen water against his strength and determination? Barely an obstacle! Still, he grudgingly had to admit that after hours of carrying a human on a snowy mountain he found it hard to stay utterly indifferent towards this white pain.

Why hadn't he opted to stay in Corona? He shuddered at the thought what these lazy worms in the Guard would look like after he hadn't been there to supervise them for at least two weeks. Oh yes, evil was hiding everywhere and the Guard had to be always prepared to defend the royal family, and to Maximus it was not simply duty, but a privilege to be allowed to form these pitiful worms into the best palace guard of the whole world! And well, there was much work still in front of him... most of the guys weren't even able to accurately throw a frying pan, let alone master the distinct fighting style that used this deadly weapon. So why hadn't he stayed in Corona?

He huffed. Because of the princess of course. Princess Rapunzel, gem of the kingdom, the "Miracle Princess" as some people called her, might be the only one Maximus had ever faced and defeated him. Well, not in battle of course. Although the princess was certainly able to defend herself, which made Maximus kinda proud although he had not been her teacher, it had been her reasoning, begging and kind words that had made him join forces with a criminal like Flynn Rider. And it had been the same now. He just hadn't been able to stand the thought of the princess leaving the country to visit the kingdom of the infamous Snow Queen with only her good-for-nothing husband as protection. He would have felt better if Pascal had been able to journey with them, since the chameleon was an animal of small stature, but was also dedicated to the princess' security... but since the winter in Arendelle was too cold for Pascal, there had been no other choice but Maximus accompanying the princess and her husband himself.

When he heard some chewing and snorting sounds, he turned his head around and looked at his companion. The accent of Sven was pretty thick, and since the reindeer was also a blue collar animal while Maximus had spent most of his life around nobles, he felt it a bit hard to understand some of the things Sven said, but during the short time the two of them had known each other the reindeer had been quite pleasant company... if you ignored his owner sometimes pretending to talk for Sven, which was when it got REALLY strange.

Sven didn't quite get why this Maximus dude was so pissed. It was a great day, the snow was deep, but powdery, the sun was out and there was no wind hindering their advance – all in all just chilly. And he didn't mind getting out of the stables either, sure, it had become a bit homey, people there were treating him fine, but if his buddy Kristoff and sometimes Kristoff's chick Anna hadn't visited him sometimes he'd have been bored silly. He was a reindeer of the land, he needed his freedom and to feel the wind around his snout, he wasn't made to stay inside all the time. And Kristoff had promised to buy him some carrots, so what was the problem?

Yes, well, Maximus understood Sven's confusion. Of course, the weather was splendid, and although he would have preferred vast plains to gallop as fast as he wanted, he indeed felt relieved that he was able to leave the stables too. In Corona he had enough to do outside all day, and once in a while the princess or even her husband would show up for a trip outside the city, but here the princess seemed to be very busy with the royals of Arendelle... and her husband knew better than bothering Maximus when he was in a bad mood. And... if he was honest, it was also not the deep snow that was bothering him. It was the company.

Sven blinked. Now what had just happened? Just a second ago he and the foreign steed had been trotting along like chums, and suddenly... he stopped chewing.

Maximus realized his mistake only when he suddenly didn't hear the chewing sound anymore. Oh no, that had not been what he meant! Sven and he were not really on the same wavelength... but both of them acknowledged that. That meant that they didn't have that many topics to talk about – which was why the time in the stables had been boring lately –, but they had had some good discussions about those few topics. They were probably too different to ever be best friends, but that didn't mean that Maximus considered Sven unpleasant company, far from it. The one who was currently sitting on him and talking to Sven's owner on the other hand...

Oh! Sven started chewing again, satisfied. So it wasn't his fault. Well, that was good, arguments were a pain, especially on such a nice day. Still, his interest was piqued. So Maximus was at odds with Prince Whatever from Somewhere. Sven wondered why that was. He'd overheard some gossip mostly by Anna about the prince' wife and how the prince and Maximus had worked together to save the princess. Just like he had shown Kristoff what a moron he was for giving his chick to this prick Hans. Kristoff was a good buddy, but he was also pretty thick sometimes. And since Maximus was mighty proud of his princess, oh THAT he'd made quite clear, it didn't make much sense to Sven that the dude couldn't stand her husband.

Maximus snorted, annoyed. Oh, Sven was right, Maximus and Fly... Prince Eugene had indeed been forced to work together to free Princess Rapunzel from her gruesome fate, but that didn't mean that the two of them were now best friends. Too often Maximus had heard from and also caught criminals and thrown them in jail, only for them to repeat their crimes after they'd served their time. Prince Eugene claimed to be reformed, and his behavior in the last years seemed to confirm that... But that didn't mean that old habits couldn't suddenly resurface. "Opportunity makes the thief"... and now that he was a prince, the former thief had EVERY opportunity. And that's why Maximus would always stay vigilant. He neighed angrily when a mass of snow landed on him. Especially if the prince was so distracted by talking to Sven's owner that he would fail to notice branches full of snow right in front of him!

Sven chewed a little harder, so that Maximus wouldn't hear his amused snort. Yeah, the fellow was alright, but a little uptight. After all, he could say the same thing about Olaf! How the silly snow-bro used a perfectly fine and delicious carrot, pretending it was his nose instead of a nourishing delicacy... in Sven's opinion the white guy was nuts! It was pretty much a sacrilege – no matter how cold Olaf was, eventually the carrot would wither, not having been able to fulfill the great destiny of filling Sven's stomach.

And yet... well, Olaf was a funny guy. And even if he wasn't, he was a friend of Kristoff and Anna, so Sven was cool with just letting the little guy be. Better even, back when the queen's powers nearly froze everything and shit really started hitting the fan Olaf had helped Anna to escape the castle just like Sven had helped Kristoff trying to reach the chick in time. Sure, in the end everything had turned out differently, but still both Olaf and Sven had done their best to assist their buddies – so they were pretty much brothers in arms now, or something like that! And Sven was fine with letting his snow-bro keep his "nose", even though to him it would always be a terrible waste. So... it seemed to Sven like Prince Eugene had proved himself just like Olaf when he had rescued his princess and reunited them with her parents. Didn't that count?

Maximus glared at the reindeer for a moment, but he couldn't deny the reason behind his companion's thoughts. Although he found Sven's carrot analogy a bit strange, the reindeer might have some point... Maximus had been displeased with King Thomas' decision to grant Flynn Rider amnesty for all his crimes and paying for the losses of the thief's victims with the money of the kingdom. He knew that Princess Rapunzel would probably have been heartbroken if the man who had saved her would have been thrown in jail, but Maximus believed in the law – and Rider had broken it many times, although the man would probably argue that he had only stolen from the rich, as if that made it any better.

And yet... Prince Eugene had earned Maximus' respect because he had been willing to give his life for Princess Rapunzel. He wouldn't dream of belittling such a sacrifice. Way to few people ever showed such commitment. But respect was no reason to be any less vigilant. The decision of the royal family was irrefutable, Prince Eugene was now one of them. And well... Maximus would make SURE that he wouldn't disgrace their family name. It was infuriating enough that Maximus had to life with the thought that a former thief was riding on him right now like the man was suddenly better than him, the Captain of the Guard, just because he had now a title! It was an impulsive act, but as a repayment for the snow shower a few minutes before Maximus suddenly caprioled and the completely surprised Prince Eugene got to know Arendelle's snow much better.

"Oh, come on, Maximus, what was that for?" the man asked angrily when he had gotten up again. "I haven't stolen anything since we arrived in Arendelle... or anything significant since I married Rapunzel for the matter. So why did you do that?"

Sven didn't listen to the monologue of the human any longer, nor was he bothered by the laughter of Kristoff. So that was why Maximus was so grumpy. The big dude was proud of his work, he was doing something that he considered useful, and then some dude came along, having cheated his way through life, and suddenly this dude was above him. And Maximus was now supposed to bow in respect in front of this guy... well, if he had been a human. Alright, that made sense... Kristoff and Sven himself were something between partners and buddies, and they had pretty much been on their own most of their life, so he hadn't really ever been in such a situation. But he supposed it sucked, at least sometimes.

Then Kristoff dismounted. And Sven just now realized where they were. At Oaken's Trading Post. Had he been able to, he would have groaned. Oh no! Had he known that Kristoff wanted to buy his carrots HERE, he would have demanded that they got them in the castle. Anna once said that obstinacy was something she and Kristoff shared – that maybe they were still together because each of them was waiting for the other one to walk away first. The girl had said it jokingly, but in the case of Oaken Sven wished that Kristoff was a little less stubborn. Had he and Kristoff's girlfriend spoken the same language, he would have told her that the time they had met first hadn't been the first time when Oaken had thrown Kristoff out. It was just because Oaken didn't have that many customers up here why Kristoff always got another chance.

Maximus took his attention off the ranting Eugene – well, it probably hadn't been there from the start – and gave Sven a look. That was strange. From all he had heard about the consort of Princess Anna, he would have judged the man to be sensible, hard-working, down-to-earth, in other words, a member of society whom Maximus respected.

Sven didn't even have the time to shake his head and tell him what usually happened when they visited Oaken's, when the owner of the shop already pushed the shouting Kristoff through the door and threw him into the snow. This time he didn't even bother to tell Sven's buddy to stay out, he just turned around and shut his door. Sven looked at Maximus and rolled his eyes, not bothering to stop chewing. This didn't even need words.

It had at least caused Prince Eugene to stop shouting at Maximus. Instead both of them looked at Kristoff, who was slowly standing up while cursing, then they looked at each other, then they looked at Kristoff again. Then the prince asked tentatively: "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Kristoff mumbled. "This moron still doesn't get that profiteering won't get him anywhere up here."

"Hmm," the prince hummed and looked at the shop. "Do you mind if I try it?"

"Knock yourself out," Kristoff said while he brushed off the snow. "YOU don't have to come here again."

The prince grinned at the other man, walked to the door, opened it and immediately smothered Oaken with greetings, compliments about the assortment, jokes and comments about the prizes. Sven blinked and looked at Maximus, who snorted, clearly annoyed. This behavior seemed to be one of the reasons why the steed didn't like the Coronian prince. Sven didn't really get why. From what he could see, Eugene was far more successful than Kristoff, not that this said much, but apparently he was more successful than Oaken too. The shop owner hardly got any word in and seemed completely overwhelmed. Maximus seemed to think that this wasn't an illegal, but somehow unethical way of getting what you wanted for less money. Sven wasn't annoyed at all, on the contrary. Although it often was Kristoff's own fault that Oaken ended up throwing him out into the snow, he still was Sven's buddy – and it was great to see Oaken himself being completely unable to cope for once.

And in the end it worked. Kristoff was staring too when the prince walked out, grinning and with their supplies, most importantly Sven's carrots. At this point Sven pretty much blended the two humans out. In his opinion the prince did a great job – he got what they needed and he didn't have to pay Oaken's ridiculous prices, and all it took was a few... well, a ton of well-placed, sugared words. He wondered why Maximus thought that this was somehow bad?

Maximus had gotten a carrot too... and well, he had accepted it, since they had been up here for hours. Still, it wasn't easy to answer Sven's question. True, the prince hadn't done anything illegal, technically it had just been one-sided haggling. And since he had listened too, he – grudgingly – agreed that Oaken's prices were... high. Still, this was the method lesser man than the prince used to cheat poor people out of their little savings. It was despicable. At least the carrot was decent enough, although he would have preferred an apple. Or a lump of sugar.

This time Sven didn't attempt to mask his amused snort. Lump o' sugar? Once in a while Kristoff bought some of those, and they were good. But Sven actually preferred carrots. They weren't as sweet, but available near everywhere, not just in special places, so you could rely on them. Maximus was pissed at his prince that the guy now enjoyed undeserved – in Maximus' opinion – privileges, but wasn't the horse a bit of a snob himself for wanting to have lumps o' sugar on a mountain?

Maximus neighed. He felt offended! A snob? Him? His whole life was dedicated to his kingdom and the royal family! He lived to serve! And he hadn't really asked for lumps of sugar or apples, he had just commented that he preferred those when they were readily available. How could Sven...?

Sven blew his nose, still amused, looking into the steed's eyes with a calm expression to quiet the horse down. Easy, boy! He hadn't intended to offend the other animal, he liked the dude. It had just been a bit of teasing. But now that he thought of it, this somehow reminded him of Kristoff. You could say his buddy compared himself to a carrot... an ordinary, in no way special thing, useful, but not really delicious. Sven didn't mind. As said, he liked carrots. But it was because of the princess chick why Kristoff was thinking this way.

Well, now he sounded unfair – to continue the metaphor, Anna had never given the impression that she wanted anything else but a carrot, that she wanted some other mate. Sven was impressed actually. Before they had met Anna, Kristoff and Sven had thought of nobles to be weird at best, rude snobs at worst. But the gal seemed to genuinely enjoy their company... and basically the company of everyone, now that she was finally allowed to leave her castle whenever she wanted. She was a lump o' sugar herself, sweet and noble, but she liked being around the carrots. And Sven thought that Kristoff was a bit dumb to think that Anna would maybe be better of with another lump o' sugar instead of himself.

Maximus raised an eyebrow. Why would Kristoff doubt himself like that? Maximus hadn't been here for very long – although the time in the stables had made it seem so –, but even he could see how much the younger Arendelle princess enjoyed the company of the ice deliverer. And the man had many good qualities. A hard worker, loyal to his friends and he seemed to be interested in the princess – not the power... If the princess – and also the queen – seemed to think that Kristoff was a good, trustworthy man, then why would he deem his qualities worth less than noble upbringing? The man should be proud of what he was!

Sven nodded. He agreed. Humans were much too complicated most of the times. And he would have much preferred the Kristoff of the past, when it had just been Sven, Kristoff and a simple, easy life, had it not been for one thing... Kristoff NEEDED Anna. Sven and Kristoff were both loners, that's why they were good buddies. But while it was okay even for a loner reindeer like him to find a mate and stay only until the offspring was old enough to officially join a herd or be trained to be a blue collar animal like himself, humans were different. Since they stayed together far longer usually, they needed to find someone whom they liked AND who complemented them. Kristoff could teach his offspring all the nice qualities Maximus had listed, but he couldn't teach them how to act around people. That's why he needed someone like Anna, even if Sven thought that sugared carrots as offspring were a bit strange. But if his buddy and its mate were happy, and as long as Sven's own carrots stayed as they were, he was fine.

Maximus looked up. He found the carrot-metaphors of his companion a bit odd, but he understood what the reindeer meant. Maybe a free-spirited, kind, yet somewhat naïve princess indeed needed a down-to-earth, protective man to complement her. And, although he cringed at the thought, he was honest enough to admit to himself that this didn't only mean Princess Anna and Kristoff... but also Princess Rapunzel and Prince Eugene. Yes, he would never completely trust the Prince... and he thought it was a good thing that one horse in the castle would always be vigilant. But even he had to admit that Princess Rapunzel would always be a bit too optimistic and kinda quixotic, not that it was her fault. And Prince Eugene, for all his faults, knew how the world worked, although he was a bit too cynic at times. Maximus would never like it, but in this respect the prince and the princess complemented each other well.

Sven snorted and nodded, satisfied. Finally Maximus and him were on the same page. Sven himself would never really like the turmoil of the city, but as long as Kristoff was happy and as long as they got out into the wilderness once in a while, he could tolerate it. That's why he'd enjoy this day here in the mountains as much as he could... and maybe, when they came back to the castle, he'd imply to his buddy Kristoff to get him some carrots AND lumps o' sugar. After all, sometimes new things turned out to be something really good.

* * *

Alright, the next one will be about Hook Hand and Kristoff then. As an apology to Kristoff for making him a horny drunkard in the second chapter.


	5. Touching your soul

First: Special thanks to mariasantara and Lord Destroyer for constant reviews - I truly appreciate them! To all others: If you like or dislike something - I'd like to hear about it.

I should maybe say that these chapters don't necessarily take place after the last one... Sugar and carrots takes place before Delicious fantasies, and the upcoming Elsa/Eugene-chapter will take place before this one. I'm writing down whatever idea comes to mind, I didn't have a complete storyboard from the start.

This one is about Hook Hand giving some advice to Kristoff, and later about Elsa, Anna and Kristoff. Mushy stuff, enjoy!

* * *

**Touching your soul**

Kristoff cursed himself for the... he had lost count of how often he had done it in the last hour. He considered himself to be a pretty strong guy, having lifted heavy weights for most of his life, but he had seriously underestimated the weight of this huge box. He certainly wasn't an expert about musical instruments, the only one he'd ever learned to play was his mandolin, and he'd seen others like flutes, brass and percussion instruments, but none of them had been this big or had looked so heavy. If he had known than he wouldn't have said that he and the musician didn't need anyone else to carry it up here.

He groaned and massaged his back. Maybe he should have even swallowed his pride and told the castle staff to help them as soon as he realized how heavy the instrument was, no matter what the musician would think of him. Sometimes he was too stubborn, he knew that. Anna often told him that she liked this quality about him, because she could be just as thick-headed and no one but Elsa would ever confront her when she was. But this time she would have probably laughed at him too.

He looked at the musician. And got quite envious since the man didn't seem to be as spent as he was, merely a bit out of breath. But speaking of the man, he didn't really look like a musician anyway, especially none of those which Elsa liked. Anna usually preferred lively, upbeat music, but Elsa liked so-called "classical" music better, with some instruments Kristoff had never seen before... and those classical musicians were often a well-groomed, slightly arrogant lot. Certainly not someone who looked like a barbarian in a tailor-made suit. Seriously, bald, heavily built, grim visage and a hook instead of one hand... the man looked more like a pirate or a bandit than someone who made music for a living. And yet Princess Rapunzel had assured Arendelle's queen multiple times that if you liked classical music you had to know this man.

Kristoff couldn't even imagine what kind of instrument this guy would be playing. He had heard that it was a "piano", but the trolls didn't have one of those, and even many people in the town could barely describe what that was. It was an instrument for aristocrats. Elsa had once tried to describe how it worked, but even she hadn't been able to describe a completely foreign instrument to Kristoff very well. But it needed to be something very robust – Kristoff shuddered at the thought of what this hook would do to his poor mandolin.

"So, um... you want something to drink?" he asked the... for lack of a better word "musician". He furrowed his brow. "Sorry, I have to ask: Do I call you Hook Hand? Or is that just your... stage name?"

"A beer would be great," the man said and moped his brow. "Travels always make me thirsty." He grinned. Kristoff wasn't sure if it made his face look happier or more dangerous. "And my stage name is Maestro Boris with the Brazen Touch. My FRIENDS call me Hook Hand."

"Brazen Touch?" Kristoff blinked and looked at the hook. "Isn't that hook made of steel?"

The grin vanished and the man grunted. "It is. But the princess one time complimented me that way, jokingly, and somehow people thought that if the princess said it, it HAD to be a clever wordplay of some sort."

Kristoff wordlessly signaled the servant who had followed them to get them something to drink and

sat down on a chair, while the musician used his hook as a crowbar and began to open the box. When the servant returned with their beers, he was done and Kristoff looked at the huge musical instrument with interest while the musician sat down next to him.

"It could be worse than Brazen Touch though," Kristoff continued the interrupted dialogue and raised his tankard. "At least people don't call you 'Your Highness'."

Hook Hand raised his tankard too, and also his eyebrow. "Yeah, Rider told me that you're bothered by that." He grinned again. "Guess we both don't really fit into the stereotypes of our job, right?"

Kristoff returned the grin and took a sip. Since Anna had given him a truly royal dressing down the last time Eugene and him had gotten drunk – he'd been so drunk that he didn't even remember what they had talked about –, he was a bit more careful. His... tipsy advances that night had caused quite the rant, and as much as Kristoff loved his wife's voice, it was more enjoyable when you were sober.

"You can say that," he answered. "No musician Elsa hired has ordered beer before." He blinked. "Wait, did you just call Eugene 'Rider'?"

"Yes." Hook Hand shrugged. "He was Rider when we met, and a royal title doesn't change that."

Kristoff snorted, feeling the tiniest bit sorry for his friend... but also amused. "I imagine he's annoyed by that?"

REALLY broad grin. "Damn straight." He took a big gulp.

Kristoff grimaced. "Well, Eugene doesn't at least feel out of place in royal company."

"And you do?" Hook Hand nudged him. "Didn't you marry a princess?" He grinned saucily. "I reckon you get along with HER."

Kristoff smiled for a moment. "Sure... it's just... you know, yesterday we had a banquet for the guests who came with Rapunzel and Eugene to hear you play." He frowned. "Where were you by the way? Rapunzel said something about you being seasick, but she's a really lousy liar."

Hook Hand snorted. "Yeah, she really is," she agreed. "No, it's easy. I just play the piano. That's where I live. I don't need to hear the gibberish of amateur music critics, even if they like my music. I stayed on the ship and had a fun evening with the crew." He looked at Kristoff. "Guess we have something in common, eh? Never thought I'd say that about a prince."

"Well, I wasn't born as a prince," Kristoff answered and leaned back. "For most of my life it has just been me and Sven... my reindeer. We were up in the mountains, my job as an ice deliverer kept us fed and we were all the company we needed." A smile crept on his face. "And then a sudden winter storm happens outside of winter, and I meet this crazy girl who wants me to guide her onto the mountain, so that she can talk to her sister. At first I'm annoyed by her, but she's so quirky and lively and makes me laugh... and suddenly me, a complete loner, find myself trying to save her life." He made a short pause. "And now we're married... and I'm happy. Anna likes everyone, and somehow she makes me enjoy the company of other people too. Well, normal folk at least. But these guys yesterday... they talked about things I've never heard before. About tempi and creshendo..."

"Crescendo," Hook Hand interrupted.

"... yeah, and other things like that. I mean, Rapunzel and Elsa knew enough about this stuff to talk to them, but Anna, Eugene and me were pretty much dumbfounded. Well, Anna... it doesn't matter if she doesn't know anything about a subject, she always finds a way into a conversation. A few comments here, an anecdote from her's and Elsa's past there, and everyone finds her charming, not that I disagree. And Eugene, I could see that he knew nothing about your kind of music as well. But he fought his way inside the conversation too. He made fewer comments than Anna, but they were always witty or amusing, then he exchanged a few sentences with Rapunzel, told a story about that he was an occasional fan of classical music since he stole a singer's bracelet once... he wasn't a fifth wheel. I was. I just sat there, ate and pretty much only talked when Anna asked me something. And I could see in their faces what the guests except Rapunzel and Eugene thought of me."

"So what?" Hook Hand asked. He ordered the servant to bring him another beer. "I didn't take you for the type who cares about other people's opinions."

"I'm not," Kristoff confirmed, taking another sip. "But Anna married me. And I hate to think that other people may look down on her too because she did."

Hook Hand looked at him, then looked at the beer Kristoff had barely started drinking. "You know, when Rider said you were a down-to-earth kind of guy, I didn't realize he meant down-right depressed. I mean, what if someone looks down on her? What does that change? I once traveled with a band of gypsies from town to town, and they didn't really care what other people thought about them, as long as they weren't chased off violently. They camped outside of the towns and they did their show as long as they were allowed to."

He smiled, as he remembered something. "Ah, and you should have seen this dancer... Esmeralda was her name, I think. She was proud of her skills, and she wasn't fazed one bit that some people thought her dance was scandalous. She was the one who told me that it's not so important what other people think of you, that there will ALWAYS be someone who doesn't agree with you... but as long as YOU don't believe in yourself, your dreams will never come true. And if you don't follow your dreams, then you can't become a better man. You will always stay mediocre because your heart is not in what you are doing." He sighed. "Sadly, I didn't take her seriously. After I had lost my hand and gotten my hook, I had given up on becoming a pianist... and it took a naïve little girl shouting at me, years later, to remind me about what I had forgotten." The servant came back and Hook Hand took the newly filled tankard.

"You are talking about Princess Rapunzel, aren't you?" Kristoff smiled. "She likes telling this story. Eugene not so much, as I recall."

Hook Hand laughed. "I bet," he said, snickering. "His dream back then wasn't worth a damn... but Rapunzel..." His eyes were glowing now. "She was an inspiration. This pretty kid walks into our tavern, and suddenly a band of bandits and mercenaries believed that they could do what they had pushed aside before out of fear of failure. She talks about her lantern dream for just a minute and all of us are suddenly willing to go to the end of the world to reach our own dreams. She's really something."

"She is," Kristoff agreed. "She and Anna are very much alike... Anna is not so much into dreams, but she just thinks there is joy and beauty in every life, you just have to really look for it." He smiled, remembering his wife's dazzling, beaming smile. "And it's really infectious. When you are around her, you can't really help but wanting to become a better man."

"Sounds like they are both little miss sunshines," Hook Hand confirmed. "So what about you? Aren't you trying to become this better man? Wasn't being with her your dream?"

"I DO try," Kristoff argued. "You know... I guess it's even harder because I'm trying to make her proud by living up to the standards of basically every noble who visits us. She would never ask me to change, but..." He looked at the musician, a bit helpless. "Have you ever felt like you wanted to impress somebody so badly that it seemed it would never be enough?"

Hook Hand grinned again. "You are really hopelessly smitten, aren't you?" he asked. "No, I can't say I have... but you know, sometimes there are people who listen to my music, who REALLY know what they are talking about. Of course I want to impress those. But you know what I tell myself then? It's okay to be criticized – it helps me becoming a better player. But the only one who has to be satisfied with my progress is myself!" He pushed his hook – fortunately not the tip – against Kristoff's chest. "Just like you can use criticism from these nobles, if the aren't arrogant asses – but the only one who needs to be satisfied with how much better you become is you... and your princess, in your case."

Kristoff looked at the hook, then he looked at the man. "So you say... I shouldn't try to please everyone, just myself and Anna?" he asked.

"Exactly," Hook Hand grunted, satisfied. "You have to follow YOUR dream on YOUR terms, otherwise you'll never be satisfied."

"I think you are right." Kristoff smiled and raised his tankard again. "Thanks, man. That really helps a lot."

"No problem," Hook Hand said and the tankards bumped together again. "Small steps – I mean, do you think I can play every piece of music now that I'd like to be able to play?"

"Speaking of that," Kristoff took up the issue. "I've never heard a piece of music on a piano."

Hook Hand blinked. "You haven't?"

"No." Kristoff shook his head. "Grew up in the mountains, remember? But Elsa has been raving about having a world-class piano player here in Arendelle for weeks." He grinned. "And if you knew the queen, you would know that she usually doesn't lose her composure – ever. But as said, I've never heard a piano. Actually I'm a bit curious how it sounds."

"Oh?" Hook Hand emptied his tankard, burped and stood up. "Well, why didn't you say so? How about I give you a demonstration... your Highness?" He grinned and moved over to the piano before Kristoff could hit him with his tankard. "What do you want me to play? Do you have a request?"

Kristoff shrugged and took a sip. "I don't know. Elsa always claims that classical music can really touch her soul. I'm not quite sure if I understand what that means."

Hook Hand mustered him for a moment. "I have an idea," he suddenly said and sat down... and he changed. Before he pretty much had been a barbarian with surprisingly good manners in a nice suit, but now he was focused, anxious... an artist. "Some time ago I composed a piece of music myself... it's about the life of Princess Rapunzel. I've only played it for the royal family, but you're a friend of her, so it's okay. It begins with her birth... the kidnapping... her years of isolation... then the meeting with Rider, followed by her chasing her dream... her kidnapper catching her again... Rider's sacrifice... and finally her being reunited with her parents."

Kristoff wanted to make a comment that he couldn't imagine how someone could convey so many things with just one piece of music, but that was when Hand Hooks fingers pressed the first ivories. And a happy tune started. It sounded different than Kristoff playing his mandolin, he wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but this was similar to the tunes he'd play for Anna. His wife LOVED dancing, and he loved watching her being happy, and this tune was conveying such unaltered happiness.

And then it changed. Hook Hand started hammering on the ivories and the tune became louder and more dramatic. He could nearly SEE Rapunzel's kidnapping in his mind, before there was a slight pause and the tune suddenly became soft, quiet and melancholic... it symbolized Rapunzel's sad childhood, but instead he imagined Elsa as a child, sad and lonely... and he understood what the queen had meant with "touching the soul".

It wasn't really his kind of music, but he still felt drawn into the story nonetheless... an upbeat, fast tune for Rapunzel's and Eugene's adventure, a quiet, slow, tension-rising tune for Rapunzel going back to her prison, another dramatic tune for Eugene's sacrifice... and in the end a slow, soft tune to praise the reunited royal family. Maybe it was the beer, maybe it had been the music, it needed the clapping to bring him back to reality again. Some more members of the palace staff had heard the music and had come to listen too. And most of them seemed very pleased. Hook Hand stood up and bowed.

"Why thank you," he said. "If I had known that I'd have an audience so soon, I would have skipped that second tankard. What do you think?" he asked Kristoff.

Kristoff frowned. "Well...," he started, weighing his words, since he didn't want to anger the other man. "That was impressive... you made it seem really easy to tell a whole tale with just one instrument. Though I don't think it is my kind of music, to be honest. I'm more into simple, upbeat songs that make you wanna dance."

For a moment Hook Hand seemed offended, but then he shrugged. "Fair enough," he said and walked over to his seat again. "And I guess you're more into songs your WIFE can dance to?"

Kristoff grinned. "You've got me there," he admitted. "Elsa will love this kind of music though, I'm sure. She's more composed than me and Anna... and I think complex melodies are just her thing." He looked at the other man, raising his eyebrow. "You should be careful when she starts sniffing though... maybe cut back on the sad and melancholic stuff, unless a frozen hall fits into your show."

"Heh," Hook Hand snorted. "Point taken." He stretched. "Can we get something to eat? I'm getting a bit hungry..."

"Hm?"

Kristoff was elsewhere with his thoughts, gazing at the piano. His mind had rewinded to the point of his and Hook Hand's discussion. It was true, taking small steps in trying to make Anna proud of being his wife was probably the way to go. Organizing the kingdom... it had taken Anna a LONG time to convince her still very stand-alone sister to accept her help at least in daily correspondence, making laws, having meetings and all the rest was still firmly resting on Elsa's shoulders. And even if he tried, they had learned this stuff, at least the basics in Anna's case. It would take months of learning to reach even Anna's level, and his wife was nowhere near Elsa's analytical mind which kept the machinery that was their kingdom going.

Assisting them with entertaining their noble guests perhaps? Well, he SHOULD learn to behave around those eventually, but that would also take time... Elsa was a loner like Kristoff, although for different reasons, but again she had studied this stuff for years at least. And Anna... Anna was simply born to entertain people. For a moment he thought that their children, once they were born, would be the happiest in the world, having Anna as their mother. The thought made him smile. But maybe he should first focus on a niche...

"Hey, are you listening?" Hook Hand's hook prickling his arm ripped him out of his thoughts. "I asked if we could get something to eat!"

He blinked at the the other man. And then he had the idea. He put his hand on Hook Hand's shoulder and smiled, confusing the musician.

"Sure," he confirmed. "But listen for a second first: What would you think of staying in Arendelle a little longer than you had planned?

Hook Hand frowned. "What do you mean?"

Kristoff told him. And Hook Hand looked at him, his expression getting more and more doubtful.

"Are you sure?" he asked Kristoff. "I mean, I don't doubt you have the money, being a prince and all... but this will take time."

Kristoff nodded. "I want to try it," he affirmed. "I am certain."

"Hmm." Hook Hand was still not convinced. "This better not be some kind of half-baked dream. I don't accept those from friends of Princess Rapunzel." He paused, but Kristoff just continued to look at him, seeming determined. "And you know I won't be here forever, right? Eventually you'll be on your own. You'll have to find someone else to help you after I'm gone."

"I know that," Kristoff said and nodded. "I still think it is worth at least trying."

Hook Hand looked at him, but then he shrugged. "Well, doesn't hurt to try, that's true. But first I want something to eat."

* * *

"Anna, where are we going?"

Elsa didn't know if she was more curious or annoyed, as she was wearing a blindfold and her little sister lead her somewhere in the castle. This was her twenty-fifth birthday... and it wasn't how she had imagined it at all. On the last three Anna had gone out of her way to give her older sister the most perfect day she could imagine. The first of them, her twenty-second birthday, the first after her coronation and the events after that, had been... very private. She had enjoyed it back then, very much so, because it had just been her and Anna, talking, playing silly games, doing girly stuff for the whole day. And yet, as much as she had enjoyed spending a whole day with the most important person in her life... it had been more like a holiday than a birthday, without any celebration. She had told Anna that they had lost so many parties already, that her sister was allowed to plan one for her next birthday. And Anna had understood.

The next one, her twenty-third birthday, had been completely overwhelming. Anna had basically filled the whole day with one giant party. First a mass in the church, where Anna personally spoke how thankful she was that she had been reunited with Elsa. Then a gigantic festivity in the town, and Elsa was pretty sure that she had shaken more hands than Arendelle had inhabitants. Then there had been another celebration in the castle, with cake and music and silly childhood games. And after all that Anna had come over for a sleepover. And although she hated to disappoint her dear baby sister, Elsa had told Anna that she was completely exhausted and that all of this had been too much. She just wasn't a people person like Anna. And Anna had understood.

So on her next, the twenty-fourth birthday, Anna had taken this to heart. She had congratulated Elsa in the morning and in the afternoon there had been a small party, just the two of them, Kristoff, Olaf, Eugene and Rapunzel, with Kai and Gerda and also Sven making a short appearance. It had been cake and lots of talking and... that had been it. The rest of the day had just been business as usual. And although Elsa had thought she would appreciate a private birthday more, she had been a bit disappointed too. Although the party in the year before had been overblown... nothing made her more happy than Anna TRYING to make her happy. And back then it had been clear that Anna had been deliberately holding back. There hadn't even been a sleepover planned. So Elsa had visited Anna that night and told the girl that she didn't want Anna to invite the whole kingdom, and she didn't want Anna to hold back – she wanted Anna to give her the party they would have had if their lives had been normal... a day full of fun and surprises and friends, but ultimately a day for THEM, not all of Arendelle. And Anna had understood.

And today... had been okay. There had been congratulating, a short service with the people in town, a small private party which had been like in the year before and then Eugene and Rapunzel had taken her on a trip in Kristoff's sled, which had given her and Rapunzel time to talk about the... dark things again. And yet Kristoff and Anna had vanished for a few times today, and Elsa just KNEW that they had planned something special for this evening. Anna giggled and made her sit down on a chair. And Elsa allowed herself to be a little childish and pouted.

"Come on, Anna, I can't take it anymore," she whined. "Just show me what you and Kristoff have been doing!"

"How do you know it's me AND Kristoff?" Anna asked.

"You've just disappeared surprisingly often in the last days," Elsa told her. She felt a kiss on her cheek and smiled.

"You are such a smart girl, aren't you, hmm?" Anna cooed playfully, like one would talk to a baby. Then her voice became normal again... a bit excited, but that wasn't unusual either. "Just one more minute, okay?"

Elsa was sitting on pins and needles, and she had a hard time keeping the armrests from freezing. Right now she felt like a little kid again – she couldn't wait anymore, she had to KNOW.

"Now, Elsa – remove the blindfold."

She did. Blinked. And... didn't know what to think. She was sitting in front of one of the large windows of the ballroom, looking at the dark town. Surprisingly dark – there was not a single light to be seen. What did that mean? She opened her mouth to ask Anna about it, who was probably somewhere behind her, but then it started. Lights appeared in the windows of the houses, one after another. The town went from dark and frightening to bright and looking cozy.

And then the music started.

Elsa's eyes shot open and she dug her nails into the armrests... who began to freeze as shock floated through her body. It was piano music... probably Kristoff, since Anna's husband – Husband! Just when had her baby sister grown up so much? – had taken piano lessons in town for at least one year, maybe longer. They had tried to keep it secret, but unfortunately the bill for the piano teacher and the piano had landed on Elsa's desk. She hadn't known why he had been doing that since Anna liked his mandolin music more, but she had just ignored it. She respected privacy, and if it became important, they would tell her about it.

Kristoff's playing wasn't perfect of course, but she knew the melody so well, she had recognized it after the first five tones. This song had had a great effect on her life, but it was HERS. How did they know about it? Her chair was now completely frozen as her feelings battled inside her chest. Shock, of course. A bit of betrayal. This was HER song. Pride that Anna had thought up something so special as a present. Sadness, when she remembered the times when she had sang this song. She sat in the frozen chair like a statue until the singing started. Then she leaped on her feet and turned around, staring at the scene in front of her.

Anna was swaying back and forth, in time with the music, her eyes closed. She was wearing the clothes she had worn when she had followed Elsa into her Ice Palace. Kristoff was sitting behind her at a new looking piano, wearing a nice suit and looking a bit funny like that, at least until you saw the highly focused expression on his face. Anna's eyes opened and looked at Elsa.

_Snow glows white in the city tonight, lights in windows can be seen._

_A kingdom of wealth and beauty, and it looks like you're the queen._

_The wind is howling while we're warm and safe inside._

_Imprisoned here no more, which was never right._

Elsa pressed her hand on her chest, completely astonished. She felt two tears running down her face, but she couldn't tear her gaze away from the wedded pair's performance. The floor around her had been frozen, but since it didn't reach very far, Anna and Kristoff continued.

_Now we have fun, we share things sad, and you're a good queen, the best we've ever had,_

_and what you are, you can now show – cause now we know!_

Elsa could hardly breathe anymore. She was crying openly now and she felt her powers raging inside of her, yet they were kept in check by her enjoyment of her sister's singing and her brother-in-law's piano playing.

_Let it go, let it go,_

_Don't hold it back anymore. _

_Let it go, let it go,_

_take a heart, open the door._

_We don't care what some strangers say, let the magic out,_

_your cold doesn't frighten us, be yourself._

She couldn't take it anymore. Elsa turned around, pressed her hands against the wall and let her powers loose.

* * *

"Elsa!"

Kristoff's eyes widened in fear as he watched Elsa freezing the entire wall and the windows of the ballroom – and his wife running towards her sister, ignoring the danger! He jumped on his feet, but it was too late – Anna was already hugging Elsa from behind. His heart nearly stopped when he remembered Anna's frozen form years ago. But nothing like that happened and after a few seconds he even remembered to breathe again. The only movements in the ballroom was Elsa's body trembling with sobs and Anna's lips whispering quiet apologies.

Had it been too early? He would certainly have liked more time to practice, he had made at least a dozen mistakes in this performance – Hook Hand would have gutted him –, but Anna had insisted that it had to be this birthday. His wife's greatest delight was when she managed to make her older sister truly happy once in a while, so she had been instantly hooked when he had told her that he wanted to learn playing the piano, so that he could give his sister-in-law a treat once in a while and help her enjoy her spare time more too.

"How did you know?" he heard Elsa's voice. It sounded raw... but not angry at least.

"Well... one time when I got up at night, I heard you singing this song while you were working," Anna told her sister, still hugging her. "And many times after that. And then Kristoff had this idea of learning piano playing, and I thought it was great since you love piano music, and then I remembered this song, and we asked Hook Hand to transcribe it, which took more than a month and Rapunzel had to beg him more than once to do it night after night... and I thought this would be a great present, with new lyrics that showed how great our new relationship is..." She paused for a second. "But it was wrong, I get it, my lyrics were clumsy and I shouldn't have invaded your privacy and..."

Elsa turned around and pulled her sister in a firm hug in one fluid motion. Judging from his wife's groan it was a VERY firm hug, but she returned it. There were still tears running down Elsa's face, but Kristoff relaxed a bit and made a few steps towards them.

"Anna, you have no idea," Elsa said, her voice strained. "I... I created this song in the bad years... when I dreamed that one time I would be free again. And when I finally fled Arendelle and created my Ice Palace, I shouted it out into the world, telling everyone that I didn't need anyone anymore..."

"Oh Elsa," Anna whispered, taken aback. "I... I'm so sorry. I thought that this song made you happy."

Kristoff was a bit depressed too. He had hoped that this present would make Elsa happy... and they had reminded her of the worst parts of her life. All this work, all this practice... it had been for nothing. Suddenly he was pulled into the hug by his sister-in-law.

"You don't understand," Elsa said, somewhere between laughing and crying. "I LOVE what you have done. I wasn't really free until I could be myself around the people I care about. You took a main element of my past and purified it, creating it anew." The blonde woman pressed her face against Anna's and Kristoff's shoulder. "You shouldn't have done so much for me..."

"Stop it!" Anna told her sister firmly. "I hate it when you put yourself down like that!" Her voice became soft. "You are a wonderful person, Elsa. And you earn so much more love."

"Anna is right," Kristoff agreed, entering the conversation. He felt relieved. "You are working so hard to make this kingdom the best there is, and even then you try to be there as much as possible for your woman-child sister..."

"Hey!"

He smiled. "Anyway, small stuff like this is really the least thing we can do for you. You are allowed to relax and enjoy things too once in a while, you know?"

Elsa pulled back and smiled at them. "Anna, Kristoff... I always enjoy the time I spend with you. You ARE my happiness."

Anna blushed, and it was Kristoff again who answered: "Great. But once in a while you have to show your loved ones how much you care for them." He smiled at the queen. "So we're glad that you liked our present. Even if I made quite some mistakes while playing."

Anna looked at him, smiling. "Is that Grand Pabbie's wisdom?" she asked.

"No, that's MY wisdom." He huffed. "I'll have you know I'm a love expert too."

Anna linked arms with him and grinned at him saucily. "As if I didn't know that..." she purred.

Elsa giggled. "Get a room, you two," she told them. Her eyes softened. "You have a good man, Anna."

"I know," her sister replied with a beaming smile. "You can't have him. You should have your own."

Elsa's smile got smaller. "You know that most men are afraid to be married to someone whose mood swings could kill them, Anna."

Anna didn't answer, but Kristoff suspected that they had talked about this topic before and they didn't want to repeat everything around him. But it didn't bother him. It was hard to feel left out when his wife was so close to him and her sister was smiling at them warmly. Besides, he thought while looking at Anna's belly, they had kept a secret from Elsa too for a while, which they would tell the queen a bit later. To make this day the truly perfect birthday.

"Anyway," Elsa announced, suddenly energetic. "Kristoff, would you mind playing the song one more time? I feel like singing too now!"

Anna clapped her hands. "That's a great idea!"

And although Kristoff felt like he had butchered Hook Hand's transcription enough for one day, he was outvoted. He didn't REALLY mind... especially once Elsa and Anna started singing together. Anna had a great singing voice, but Elsa's seemed made for this special song. It was a wonderful, soul-touching duet – minus his occasional mistake –, and he had to focus VERY hard to not suddenly stop playing and stare at them mesmerized. And when he and Anna retreated to their chambers finally, he felt content with the thought that they had become an even stronger family today. He placed his hand on Anna's belly. And soon... a bigger one too.

* * *

Well, there aren't that many ideas left... the next chapter will probably be about Elsa and Eugene talking about trying to make up for a bad past. I'm not sure if I have enough material for a Olaf/Pascal chapter yet...


	6. Working through the guilt

Wow! So many reviews! Thank you all! And sorry for the wait, I don't have that much time right now.

TheFallingSnowFlakez: Why thank you. I actually thought that the lyrics were a bit clumsy (even made Anna say that). I'm not sure though since English isn't my first language. Glad you liked them.

Lord Destroyer: I haven't seen the Hunchback either... or more than a dozen Disney movies in total. Fortunately there is the internet for getting an impression of Esmeralda's character.

About the pregnancy... I don't think I'll make a chapter with Anna and Kristoff telling others, but I think the baby will appear at least once, maybe with Olaf/Pascal. By the way, I have ideas for two to three more chapters. But if you have an idea about a new character constellation... let me hear it.

This chapter takes place after "Demons from the past" - Anna and Rapunzel have helped Elsa realize that she has hurt Anna once again by pushing her away. Eugene knows how Elsa feels right now.

* * *

**Working through the guilt**

They looked so happy.

Normally this would have been a source of joy for her too. Seeing Anna and Rapunzel play tag with Olaf on the town market, laughter transforming their youthful faces from pretty into something stunningly beautiful, at least in her opinion... this normally would have been a sight to warm even Elsa's cool heart. But today this joy was tainted. And it was her own fault. Again.

The queen of Arendelle sighed and put her hand on the window, wishing she was caressing her dear sister's cheek instead and in the same moment being glad that Anna was outside, having fun. Which she, Elsa, had deprived her of for months. She, who had sworn that she would never make Anna sad again. She, who had nonetheless frozen out the most important person in her life AGAIN – and it had taken Rapunzel's surprise visit to make her realize what she was doing. She grimaced and closed her eyes. She had just tried to keep Anna save by keeping her distance from her and Kristoff, allowing them to create a new, untainted family, with her just being a bystander... but what she had failed to realize was, that she had done the same thing she had done in the isolation years – imprisoning herself, creating distance between her and her beloved sister and making BOTH of them unhappy in the process.

A tear made its way across her cheek, freezing in the process. Why? Why had she done that? She had heard Rapunzel's theory, and it made sense... frightening as it was. Still... she had believed that her relationship with Anna had been repaired in the now more than two years after their great adventure. That they understood each other again. And it had only taken one sentence of Kristoff at his and Anna's wedding to drive her down this bad road again, convince her that distancing herself from her sister was a good thing. Anna had showered her with so much love... so why were these thoughts still inside of her head? Why was she still so weak?

"Elsa," she heard a quiet, male voice behind her. She turned around, wiping away the frozen tear from her cheek. Eugene was leaning in the doorframe, looking at her sternly. He pointed behind her. "Look."

She did. Ice flowers were covering the whole window, and the window frame was currently in the process of freezing. She yanked her hand away, feeling even more depressed. She tried to recall the feeling of love to thaw the window, but it was hard with so much self-loathing currently inside of her.

"Are you okay?" the Coronian prince asked. He showed a lopsided grin. "Well, I guess not, considering the talk you just had with Anna and Rapunzel. But HOW are you doing?"

"I'm... doing fine, Eugene," Elsa lied. She knew that Eugene was very adept at spotting lies, but she didn't know what else to say. She was the queen. A queen should never show weakness around strangers... and although Eugene had become as close a friend as Olaf, and Rapunzel even more so, through the eyes of a queen they were still foreign royals... oh, skip it, she just knew that she would break down – again.

She had already cracked when Rapunzel and Anna had cornered her. At first she had denied everything, but as soon as Anna, with breaking voice and tears in her eyes, had told her how much Elsa was hurting her by retreating into her shell again just because of Anna's and Kristoff's marriage... well, Anna REALLY didn't want to, but she and Rapunzel had to leave the room and talk to Elsa through the door because of the sudden icy cold. When she had calmed down and tearfully apologized, Anna had of course immediately hugged and forgiven her... but there was still so much shame, frustration and guilt inside of the queen's head. And, above all, the question: Would she EVER be free of this curse of constantly hurting Anna?

"You're lying," Eugene told her bluntly and walked over to a chair, sitting down and leaning back. "But that's okay, I'm used to lying. I'm just here because I thought you might need someone to talk."

Elsa took a deep breath, trying to uphold her calm demeanor. "Actually, Eugene, I think I would prefer being alone right now," she told the man, her voice more steady than she felt.

The prince shrugged and sat up straight, looking at her. "And I think you're still lying," he countered, his voice now serious. "Elsa... I know what you are going through right now."

Elsa laughed... a mirthless, broken laugh. "No offense, Eugene, but you have NO IDEA what..."

"You probably feel ashamed and frustrated by yourself right now," Eugene interrupted her. "Because you wanted your sister to have the perfect future, but your past caught up with you and hurt her. I'm pretty sure you also feel guilty and a bit helpless, because you are now doubting yourself... asking yourself if you can EVER make her happy. And since you are here, watching them, instead of being locked up in your room, I guess there is also hope inside of you... hope that THIS TIME everything will be better, but it's currently under enemy fire by the other emotions."

Elsa just stared at him.

"Sit down, Elsa," the Coronian prince said with emphasis. "I'm pretty sure that your talk with Anna and Rapunzel has been a heartfelt one, but there is probably still much to talk about later. And I truly think that it would be easier for you to face Anna if you sorted out your thoughts beforehand."

For a moment Elsa felt compelled to let her powers loose and force the man out of the room. She HAD a lot to think about, but this was HER problem! It was HER duty to sort it out! But she nearly immediately realized that this was isolation thinking too – she had tried to solve her magical problem alone for years, and now she had tried to create an artificial happy family for Anna for months, and in both instances she had not only hurt herself, she had also hurt the ones close to her. She had some people in her life now whom she trusted... Anna first and foremost, Rapunzel a close second, and to a lesser degree Kristoff, Kai, Gerda, even Olaf... She looked at Eugene. But maybe she still needed another confidant to relearn more about trust. She walked over and sat down too, looking at the prince expectantly.

He leaned back again, satisfied. "Alright then," he said. "How about if I tell you a little story?"

"As long as it's not the story how you died," Elsa deadpanned.

"Ah, don't worry," Eugene assured her. "I guess you've heard THAT one at least five times already. No, this is the story how my past made me nearly lose Rapunzel."

Elsa's eyes widened, but she kept quiet.

"It wasn't even a very important function... Thomas and Primrose had accepted that Rapunzel and I wanted to marry, but they wouldn't let us until the nobility had at least gotten to know me beforehand. So they were invited, and one after another they visited or we visited them. And one of them... I won't tell you the name, but he was a pretty old-fashioned duke... didn't even try to hide his contempt, maybe because we were in HIS place. Thomas told me afterward that the guy was a sycophant around him. Well, he stayed polite, but he DID ask Rapunzel if she really wanted to marry a known criminal. If she wasn't scared that I'd slice her throat one night and run off with as much money as I could carry? That he only wanted the best for the kingdom and marrying a criminal instead of a better-suited gentleman – in his case, his son – might also poison the royal blood with his criminal tendencies."

"That must have been horrible," Elsa commented. She knew how sensitive Eugene was when it came to his past. In THAT matter, they were alike.

"At least I didn't hear it." He shook his head, looking disgusted. "What I DID hear was Rapunzel's answer. It was loud and clear, and she told the guy unmistakably that while I had made mistakes in the past, I had saved her life by risking mine – and that she KNEW that while I had been a thief, I had never killed anyone or done something else unforgivable." He paused.

"But there WAS something?" Elsa asked, alarmed. Did he just...?

"Not like that," he quickly added. "I'm NOT a murderer or anything like that – I swear on my new life. But... well, when I first met the Stabbington Brothers, I learned about their reputation pretty quickly. I knew that they were ruthless cutthroats, but I also knew that as a team we could pull off way bigger thefts than on our own. And during our first performance, while I was responsible to get the jewels from a rich woman's jewel case, they subdued the hired guards. And when I came back to the meeting point at the docks, they were just throwing something into the water."

Elsa raised her eyebrow. She had a bad feeling about this.

Eugene had seen her look. "Yes, it was what you think it was," he confirmed and sighed. "They had killed one of the guards. I was furious and asked them why, but they just stayed calm and told me that it had just been bad luck and he had spotted them first. And that I had been part of the break-in too, so his blood was on my hands too." He snorted. "I was pretty young back then, and they were intimidating... I didn't dare running away. And since they were reasonable enough to know that a quiet, unnoticed heist was better than a violent one, we agreed that they would not kill anymore, or I would leave the group. I don't know if they ever killed again, if they did, they got rid of the corpses when I wasn't there." He paused again.

"And what did you do?" Elsa asked. Maybe she should have been angrier, but she still remembered how she very nearly had killed the Duke of Weselton's men in her Ice Palace. She owed it to Eugene to at least listen to the whole story and then judge him.

"I tried to make it right," he answered, staring at the ceiling. "I mean, I was shaken. That night Rapunzel told me how mad she was at that guy for saying such awful things about me and that she KNEW that I could never kill someone... I felt horrible. So I rode wherever the Stabbington Brothers and I had pulled off a break-in... asked around about violent deaths during that time... and fortunately this guy stayed the only victim I know of." He grimaced. "I guess their only redeeming quality was that they knew that thieves get only pursued for so long... but murderers are hunted down. The man had a wife, so I visited the woman. When I saw that she was living alone, just barely getting by, I really felt like scum. And then... I lied to her."

Elsa raised her eyebrow. "Because you couldn't tell her that you had been working with the Stabbington Brothers?" she guessed.

He smiled for a second. "I always said you were the smartest queen I knew... at least until Rapunzel get's coronated." Then he became serious again. "Yes, exactly... I told her that I was a member of the guard and that we had finally caught the brothers... that they had admitted that they had killed her husband. And that the king had decided that she should get a part of their loot. And then I gave her enough money for her to live a comfortable life. She was pretty happy... but when she told me that she would still trade all this money for her husband, if that was possible, I felt like sinking into the ground."

"Well... did you feel better after that?" Elsa asked. "After all, you did everything you could... and you didn't kill her husband yourself after all."

"All true... and while I rode back I did feel relieved," Eugene confirmed. He sighed. "Until I ran into Primrose."

"Your mother-in-law?" Elsa and Corona's queen had only met once... while Anna and Kristoff visited Corona every summer – and Rapunzel and Eugene returned the favor every winter –, Elsa herself didn't always have the opportunity to travel with them, her royal duties sometimes keeping her too busy. But she really liked the older woman. She was a cultivated, friendly, understanding woman... much like Elsa's own mother.

"Yeah... of course she had noticed that I had been gone for quite some time. And when Rapunzel became scared that I had an affair or was preparing leaving the country or something... well, she can be a bit overdramatic at times, I'm sure you've noticed."

Elsa smiled for a moment. That was true. Rapunzel was a bit more mature than Anna, but both of them enjoyed their lives to the fullest, including the fine art of exaggeration. She nodded.

"Anyway," Eugene continued, "when Rapunzel told her that she was scared, Primrose cornered me. She demanded to know what I was doing and why she shouldn't let the guards throw me into a cell for hurting her daughter. Well, she was serious, I could tell. So I told her everything. Why I couldn't just confess to Rapunzel. That I had used some of the loot I HADN'T returned to her and Thomas, because the owners were rich enough to not miss it and I wanted to be able to buy Rapunzel or a poor kid on the streets a nice present once in a while. And that I felt that I wasn't worthy of being Rapunzel's husband until I had sorted out my past." He broke off and looked Elsa straight in the eyes. "What I didn't see was that Rapunzel felt hurt because I was pushing her away."

Elsa looked away. "I see what you are getting at," she said. Somehow she was relieved that she was not the only one who had hurt those who were close to her – even if she felt bad for Rapunzel –, but this did nothing to change what she had done... again. Still, she was curious. "So how did Primrose react?"

"Well, first she asked some hard questions if there really was no blood on my own hands and if I had done really everything I could to make things right," Eugene continued, looking a bit uncomfortable at the memory. "Made me swear on my second life. But after that she was quite... understanding. More than I deserved back then actually. She told me that if I really loved her daughter, then I had to tell Rapunzel the truth." He grimaced. "And that I REALLY didn't want to hear. But she made it pretty clear that she would not let her daughter be hurt any more by my secrets... that our marriage would be doomed before it had even started, if there was no trust between us." He shook his head. "And well... I didn't know what to say after that."

Elsa looked at her hands. It was quite easy for her to empathize with Eugene... she had felt very relieved when Rapunzel and Anna had left the castle after they had hammered the truth into her skull. She just didn't know what to say to her sister after what she had done. She knew that Anna had already forgiven her. Anna would probably always forgive her, even if Elsa thought that she didn't deserve it. It didn't make her feel any less worthless. "And what happened after that?"

"Well... since Primrose had made it pretty clear that I had no choice, I told Rapunzel everything. And we had our first fight... a really bad one." Eugene shuddered. "She was crying. She screamed at me that I had betrayed her trust. I shouted that I was trying to make things right. She argued that I had kept secrets from her. I said that I would have told her after I had atoned. And then she looked away and whispered that if I had just trusted her, then we could have done all of this together – like couples were supposed to do."

He sighed. "The next days were really bad... Thomas was very close to disowning me, but Primrose somehow calmed him down. He sent out a spy to look around for more secrets of my past and he told me that I would work those debts to my victims off – not pay them with my loot. He'd give me tasks and I would finish them, OR ELSE. I accepted. What else could I do? Meanwhile Primrose had many talks with her daughter. At first Rapunzel was very firmly against ever seeing me again, but her mother managed to convince her that life was not a fairytale – that no one was completely good or bad. That even Rapunzel's father, whom Blondie respects like no one else, had made a few questionable decisions in his life, and that Hook Hand and his friends had committed many crimes, but when it came to helping Rapunzel, they did the right thing. And finally, after many apologies and talks, she forgave me."

"So you are telling me," Elsa concluded, wearing her expressionless queen-mask right now, "that you nearly lost Rapunzel because you didn't include her in your decision-making. And that I did the same thing with Anna."

Eugene nodded. "Exactly."

Elsa sighed. "No offense, Eugene... your story was interesting, and I am glad that you and Rapunzel were able to fix things and even strengthen your relationship... but I realized right after Anna's and Rapunzel's interrogation that it was a grave mistake to shut Anna out again."

"I thought so," Eugene said. "Again, I know you are smart, Elsa. That's why I'm puzzled. It hurts me to say this, but I'm not as smart as you... and back then this was my first miscommunication mistake. But you have done this TWICE now... and for much longer."

"I know," Elsa grumbled, getting annoyed. She didn't need to be reminded – she had thought about this all day!

"But I somehow can't believe that this was just caused by Kristoff reciting some wedding verse. You're more clever than that, Elsa." Eugene looked at her intensely. "Is there another reason?"

She was becoming frustrated now. "Just leave it at that, Eugene," she warned.

"Don't you think it would be better if you talked to me first before you talk to A..."

"I said STOP IT!" Elsa suddenly shouted, all the frustration that had accumulated inside of her since her conversation with Anna and Rapunzel bursting out. And when she opened her eyes she saw that her magic had followed suit, freezing half of the room around her. Eugene was fortunately not frozen, but he was shivering, his eyes wide open.

"Oh my god!" Elsa cried, closing her eyes and remembering Anna, when her younger sister had tearfully hugged her today, after Elsa had finally recognized what she had done over the past months. When she opened her eyes again she was relieved to see that the ice was melting. "I'm so sorry, Eugene – so incredibly sorry. I didn't want this... I just..."

"D-don't mention it," the prince interrupted her, with only slightly chattering teeth. "I was F-Flynn Rider, remember? You need to get a lot more serious to impress me!" He even managed to smile.

Elsa moaned and covered her face with her hands. "You were right," she mumbled. "Kristoff's wedding vow was just the last straw... I was insecure way before."

Eugene hit his arms a few more times to warm up the muscles. "Tell me everything, Elsa," he said. "Let it out. I mean, you don't want something like this to happen later with Anna, do you?"

Elsa shivered and sat up straight again. "No, of course not. I... I..." She paused for a second, collecting her thoughts. "I think this started right after the coronation disaster. I don't think I have ever been happier in my entire life... Anna showering me with love and affection, me finally being free to be myself, and Arendelle slowly, but surely getting better. But a part of me always thought... that I didn't deserve this happiness."

"Because you blamed yourself for Anna's lonely childhood," Eugene concluded. "You know, Rapunzel told me once that sometimes she feels guilty too... you know, because of me dying for her."

Elsa nodded. "Yes... I guess she would understand. I was still happy, you know. But when Anna's and Kristoff's wedding came closer... Anna would start talking about children."

Eugene flinched. "What about them?" he asked. Elsa was pretty much lost in her memories, but at least a part of her thought that Eugene not been completely successful in hiding that this topic bothered him. But right now she had to focus on her own feelings before Anna came back to talk.

"She talked about filling the castle with laughter again... making us a full-fledged family again... continuing our family line... and I tried to be happy too. But a part of me thought, what if you lose control around Anna's baby? What if a sudden burst of magic makes Anna tell me to stay away? Or even very trivial... what if the baby just doesn't like my cool skin?"

Eugene nodded, understanding. "And then, at the wedding, when Kristoff took over the role as Anna's protector... those fears became stronger."

Elsa looked down, defeated. She felt so incredibly stupid. "Yes. And I let them into my heart again. Let them convince me that Anna's family would be safer if I kept my distance." She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up.

"And that's what you need to remember, Elsa," Eugene told her, his voice sincere. "As a queen you have to often make decisions alone... but as a family member you can't. I learned that the hard way, and you learned it too. If your decisions have an impact on Anna, Kristoff or whoever, then you need at least to listen to their opinion, or the trust between you will shatter."

"I know," Elsa sighed, but then she put her hand on Eugene's and smiled at him thankfully. "Thank you, Eugene. You really helped me."

"Not a problem," he answered, showing her a particularly sly smile. "Helping one of her best friends might get me some bonus points from Rapunzel... for the next time I mess things up."

Elsa smiled briefly. "You know... sometimes I think Rapunzel would be a better sister for Anna than I am," she admitted. "They are so very much alike... I doubt that there would be as many misunderstandings between them as there are between Anna and myself."

"Mmh, I'm not so sure about that," Eugene disagreed. "I mean, do you really think that they would be as close as they are now, presupposing that Rapunzel was kidnapped and Anna was not, since she never had magic? And anyway... the main problem with this is that Anna doesn't WANT another sister. She wants YOU, Elsa." He grinned. "And if she and Kristoff are really planning to have a child, then she also NEEDS you. After all, with those two as parents, this poor kid needs every reasonable authority figure it can get, don't you think?"

That made Elsa laugh. "Well, you might be right about that," she admitted. "I can't risk the potential heir to the throne of Arendelle being TOO much like its parents, can I?"

"What are you guys talking about?"

They looked to the door. Anna and Rapunzel were standing there, both looking a bit dishevelled from playing outside. Anna seemed to be her normal happy self, but whenever her eyes were on Elsa, they looked concerned. Rapunzel seemed relieved now that their talk with Elsa was over. Olaf was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, Eugene and I just decided who is in which team," Elsa told the two, smiling.

Eugene blinked. But before either he or the two girls could say something, Elsa did her thing and a pile of snowballs formed in front of them, while another one formed in front of the two princesses. Anna was the fastest thinker.

"That's not fair!" she cried. "We are completely spent from playing tag with Olaf and you two just sat around the whole time!"

"I guess you are right," Eugene said, standing up. "Which means... our battle strategy worked!" He quickly took a snowball and threw it at his wife who couldn't react soon enough. The snowball hit her right on the chest, making her shriek. Then she balled her fists and looked at him with murder in her eyes.

"EUGENE!"

Right after that one of the fiercest battles ever fought in Arendelle's history erupted. Eugene enjoyed it. He, Rapunzel and Anna had succeeded in bringing Elsa to her senses again, and it hadn't even taken a day. That meant he and Rapunzel had enough time to enjoy their short vacation... after he gave Elsa his mother-in-law's letter tomorrow morning of course. He didn't know what it was about, but Primrose had asked him to deliver it and – even more strange – had told him not to mention anything to Rapunzel.

But that wasn't really important right now. In this moment the enemy was focusing their fire on him, obviously trying to eliminate him first before attacking the secret weapon "E.L.S.A." of the Eugenian Rebels, meaning that the fate of their glorious army was now in his hands. He decided that his wife should not have to say that her husband had died like a coward, so he stood up, ignored the snowballs hitting him and started to throw snowballs as fast as he could. His heroic roar, while he stood there like a monument – well, a rapid-fire monument –, was nearly loud enough to drown out the laughter of the females in the room.

And way later his wife did indeed whisper into his ear that she had married a hero. He grinned, since he had long since found out that a hero's prize was way more valuable than a thief's loot. Especially at night.

* * *

Alright, I realized that the Coronians have in almost all chapters been problem solvers for the Arendellers. In the next chapter the trolls will help Rapunzel and Eugene in return.


	7. Merged lives

crossoverauthor12484: Thanks for the "putted"-correction and the criticism, it WAS constructive. Let's see if you were right about the letter.

Killer Sand Shadow: Thank you! But sadly enough, this fanfic won't be that much longer. Two more chapters, then I'm out of ideas... and I think I wanna try a new story.

This is quite a long chapter. Rapunzel's mother tells Elsa about her daughter and Eugene having a serious problem, and Elsa thinks the trolls can be of help. If they stop being weird long enough. Thank you for the reviews, please keep them coming! I like this chapter, please tell me what you think of it.

* * *

**Merged lives**

Elsa carefully opened the letter, looking at Eugene while she did. The Coronian prince seemed just as anxious as she was... strange when she thought about the day before, when they had reached a new level of understanding. All of them had really enjoyed the snowball fight, although when Anna and Rapunzel finally had given up, Anna still had called foul play for Elsa and Eugene resting before the fight, and left, pouting adorably. When Elsa had visited her later to apologize, Anna had faked anger and ignored her big sister... until Elsa had told her that the cheating was not the only thing Elsa wanted to apologize for. Immediately she had been hugged and Anna had told her that she had already forgiven her.

Although she shouldn't. Anna made this way too easy. Of course Elsa could see now what she had done and how much she had hurt Anna, and her own guilt would make sure that she would feel bad for a LONG time... but Anna was too soft. If she was like that with her future kids – the thought of little redheads running around in the castle again made Elsa smile for a moment –, then they would think they could get away with everything. Eugene was probably right, Anna would need Elsa's help in raising her kids. She would not be an intruder in a perfect family. She had to remember this thought whenever she became insecure around her little sister again. She could NOT do this to Anna again. She just COULDN'T.

But back to the letter. Elsa had been pretty surprised when Eugene had asked her for a private audience without Rapunzel and given her this message from his mother-in-law. Although Primrose and her had immediately liked each other when they had met nearly two years ago, with both of them being very similar in behavior, enjoying the fine arts and knowing the burden of leadership very well, they had only been in indirect contact through Anna and Rapunzel since. She wondered why the older woman would write her, and more importantly why Primrose's daughter wasn't supposed to know about it. She started reading.

_My dear Queen Elsa!_

_It has been such a long time since we have spoken to each other. Rapunzel of course tells me every single detail of her visits, but..._

The first part of the letter was basically saying that Primrose would like to see Elsa again, that she thought that the friendship between her daughter and the Arendelle sisters had strengthened Rapunzel's empathy and helped her grow up, that she dearly hoped that whatever had come between Elsa and Anna could be resolved – Elsa flinched when reading this part –, and so on. It was the second part that made Elsa's eyes grow bigger and bigger... and Eugene even more anxious, whenever she looked at him. He didn't interrupt her reading though.

_There is something I need to tell you which cannot wait until we meet again though. Your sister Anna and her husband Kristoff have been married for half a year now. Surely you two sisters have already talked about children. Actually I am quite certain that you have, since your sister was only a little embarrassed when I asked her if there would be more potential heirs for Arendelle's throne anytime soon... no comparison to Rapunzel when we had our first talk about this subject._

Elsa grinned for a second. That was easy to imagine. Today Rapunzel was a very thoughtful, even wise young woman, especially when it came to Elsa's and Anna's relationship, but Primrose and Eugene had assured her multiple times that the girl had been very naïve about many things when she had started living with her real parents. And considering how soon after that Eugene and her had married, these talks between mother and daughter, who had just met again after years of separation, had to have been... awkward. The next sentences made her grin vanish though.

_I am sorry if I make you uncomfortable with this question, yet for the sake of my daughter I have to ask: Have you ever considered having children of your own? Since it is one of the most important duties of royals to produce heirs to maintain the stability of their country, I am sure you have. And I am sure you have also thought about how your innate magic would affect your child._

To say she was baffled by this VERY intimate question would have been an understatement. Yes, Elsa HAD thought about having children. Often and hard, especially since it had been Anna who had pressured her to think about it. And she had come to the sad conclusion that it was too dangerous for her to have children. Even if she found a spouse who was not frightened by the prospect of a wife who could easily kill him by accident during fights or love-making – and Elsa had made sure to warn her past suitors about this –, there was a strong possibility that her cool body was simply not suited to carry inside and nurture a vulnerable little being.

And the more frightening thought, that had led her to abandon the thought of marrying and having a child at least for now, was that the agony of giving birth would make her lose control of her powers almost certainly, very possibly killing her baby before it had a chance to even look at her. It was simply too dangerous, at least until someone found something powerful enough to cancel out her magic for at least nine months. Anna understood these reasons, although she was not happy about it. She had told Elsa that when she, Anna, had children, she would teach them to love their cool aunt all the more. Elsa was... fine with that. Somehow.

_Please forgive me if I am touching a sore spot with this topic, but as you may know, Rapunzel and Eugene have been married for nearly four years now... and although there is no doubt that they love each other spiritually AND physically..._

Elsa blushed while reading this part, nervously glancing at Eugene, who was himself on pins and needles.

… _there is still no sign of Rapunzel getting pregnant. She and her have talked about this more than once, and although I have tried to reassure her, have told her that you cannot force nature, I was worried. Even more so when she told me that her period had stopped nearly completely after Eugene had cut off her hair. After the third year, with my dear daughter getting more and more restless, I was desperate enough to wish that HE was the one not able to have children, but reason tells me that this might be my and my husband's fault. WE brought magic into Rapunzel's life, although we didn't really have a choice back then, but I fear that when Eugene cut off Rapunzel's hair to save her from a life not worth living, when he severed my daughter's ties to the live-giving magic of the sun... he might have destroyed EVERY possibility for her to produce life. Not that I blame him, I would have done the same thing in his stead, but it pains me to think that the wonder which brought my dear Rapunzel into this world may be the reason why she might never be able to experience the joys of motherhood herself._

Elsa put her hand on her mouth, deeply moved. She understood how Primrose felt. As Elsa had blamed herself for Anna's lonely life, Primrose blamed herself for her own weakness, which had made the use of the Sun Plant necessary and had condemned Rapunzel to a life of deceit... and now possibly a life without children of her own. The thought was scary. Even without her magic, Rapunzel was a being of joy and energy. While Elsa liked to compare Anna to the driven, stubborn life of spring which in the end always managed to defeat even the hardest winter, Rapunzel was a more mature kind of life, confident in its power and ready to bear fruit. It was a bit poetic, but somehow fitting. To deny someone like that the chance to create more life was... unthinkable.

_That is when I remembered something you once told me. You said that in your childhood, when this tragic accident with your sister happened, someone told you how your magic would develop. Someone who obviously knew much about the Art. You never told me who this someone was... but after four years I feel like this man or woman may be my daughter's only hope to ever experience the joy I have experienced, when I first held her in my arms. That is why I ask you... no, why I beg you to take Rapunzel to the someone who told you about your magic. Your sister was saved as a child, and maybe whatever is wrong with my poor daughter's body can be fixed too. I don't know if this will work, or if this person even still lives, but if another miracle happens and my daughter can be the giver of life again as which she has been born, then all of Corona will be forever in your debt._

_In anxious anticipation,_

_Queen Primrose of Colrona_

"Well... what does it say?"

Elsa looked up. Eugene was now obviously out of patience... and quite understandably so. Elsa handed him the letter.

"Read for yourself," she told him. "Then we'll talk."

He frowned for a moment, but then his curiosity got the better of him. He took the letter and read it. With each sentence he seemed to become more and more perplexed. Until he was done and turned around, staring at Elsa speechlessly.

"So," Elsa started speaking, realizing that otherwise this would become a LONG morning. "Do you think it's true?"

"I can't believe she wrote that," Eugene finally brought forth. "I mean, couldn't she at least have talked to us first?"

"My guess?" Elsa replied, raising an eyebrow. "The idea to visit Arendelle right now was a quite spontaneous one – no surprise when you think whose idea it was. I think Primrose wanted to talk to you, but took the initiative when she heard that you would visit us way sooner than planned."

"Well... that would make sense," Eugene mumbled and stared at the letter. "Still, this..."

"Is it true?"

"It's not!"

Elsa leaned back and frowned. The outburst wasn't a complete surprise, but since she had to keep her own emotions under control at all times, she was not a fan of others losing control either.

"It's not," Eugene whispered. "We... just need more time."

"Eugene." Elsa tried to make her voice soothing, but it was... surprisingly hard. This kind of voice was usually reserved for Anna and only sometimes for friends like Olaf, Kristoff and Rapunzel. It felt... weird to use it on someone who was usually as self-confident as Eugene. "Yesterday you risked my respect when you told me about your past, and you did it to help me. That was very brave. I understand that this is even harder, but this time the risk is not solely yours, but Rapunzel's too. I cannot promise anything, but there MIGHT be someone who can help you here." She paused. "Has she really never talked to you about this?"

He still stared at the letter, balling his fists. Then he sighed. "She has," he confirmed. "Rapunzel has never hidden the fact that she wants children. I think she'd be a fantastic mother. And I... well, I grew up in an orphanage. The thought of having children myself... I was a bit scared at first, but it kinda grew on me... giving them a better life than I had and stuff." He paused. "That's why it was hard to see her disappointed face getting more and more desperate in time, whenever she wouldn't get pregnant. She tried prayer. She tried herbal medicines." He blushed slightly. "And then she found this book about... well... intercourse positions that would help you getting pregnant..."

Years of practice were a great help for Elsa to retain a stoic face. Had the situation been any less serious, she would have laughed out loud.

Eugene coughed. "Anyway," he mumbled. "I tried to reassure her, like Primrose said she did. But over the last year I could see that she was slowly losing hope. It was a horrible thing to watch... when she came into my life, she was like a sun – bright, heart-warming and powerful. And then I see all that makes her so special slowly disappear." He looked at Elsa. "I am sure that YOU of all people know how that feels, Elsa."

Of course she knew. She bit on her lip and concentrated on holding her powers back. Helplessness had been her companion for the majority of her life. She had felt her dearest friend slowly drift away from her, and there had been nothing she could do. But she would have never guessed that Rapunzel, one of the strongest people she knew, shared a similar fate and Elsa had never noticed it.

"I do," she whispered. "But you haven't really answered my question, Eugene. Do YOU think that Primrose is right? Do you think that Rapunzel's inability to conceive could have been caused by the loss of her magic?"

Eugene remained silent for some seconds. "I don't know," he confessed, rubbing his head. "I've never thought about it this way... but I'm afraid... it would make sense."

Elsa paused for a moment and made sure that her emotions were under control again. "Then I guess we should do what Primrose suggested," she declared and stood up. "You and Rapunzel should go and see the ones who helped Anna when I hurt her with my magic."

Eugene looked at her with hopeful eyes. "So he really exists?" he asked. Then he blinked. "Wait... THEY exist?"

Elsa smiled and walked to the door. "They do. I'll ask Kristoff to accompany you. Those guys are practically his family."

"Wait!" Eugene stood up. "Don't you want to tell me WHO these people are?"

Elsa turned around, smiling cheekily. "No," she said. "I don't want to ruin the surprise." And they WOULD be surprised, no doubt about that. She'd make sure that Kristoff told her every detail afterwards.

* * *

"So, we're here," Kristoff announced and tightened Sven's reins. "We'll have to walk the last few meters."

Eugene looked around. To him it seemed like this part of Arendelle was completely devoid of humans. There had been no sign of civilization since the trading post Kristoff and him had visited when they had traveled to Elsa' palace. And it didn't seem like there was anything here that made it worthwhile living so far away from other humans. He helped Rapunzel step out of the sled.

"Eugene, why are we here exactly?" she asked him, seemingly thinking similar thoughts. Eugene hadn't told her about Primrose's letter and his talk with Elsa. He didn't want to get her hopes up in case Elsa's... magicians couldn't help Rapunzel after all. His wife didn't really need any more reasons to grief.

"Well, now that we're here I can tell you," Anna told her, jumping out of the sled, grinning brightly. When Elsa had asked Kristoff to accompany Eugene and Rapunzel, she immediately had offered to tag along. Now that the problem between the two sisters had been solved, she wanted to have as much fun with Rapunzel as possible as long as the Coronian princess and her husband were in Arendelle. And THIS had sounded like MUCH fun! "We are visiting Kristoff's family!"

"Kristoff's family?" Rapunzel blinked and looked around. "They live up HERE? That's... far off."

"A bit," Anna agreed and started walking, following Kristoff. "But don't worry, they are really great people. When I was a child and REALLY sick, they helped me. And Kristoff was an orphan before he met them, and they took him in. Sven too, of course. They are a little... rough, but really funny! And..."

Eugene tuned Anna out. This was a useful skill he had developed after his and Rapunzel's second visit in Arendelle, since Anna was very prone to rambling. He put an arm around his wife's shoulders and kept looking around while following Anna and Kristoff. But there were no signs of mining, farming or even houses. How could Kristoff's family survive up here? And then they turned around another corner and Kristoff was waiting for them, standing in the middle of many round, moss-grown rocks, smiling proudly.

"Welcome," he said.

Rapunzel blinked. "Welcome where?" she asked.

Anna giggled and walked towards her husband. "We're in Kristoff's former home, silly," she claimed. She turned around, looking at Kristoff. "What's wrong? Are they not ready yet?"

"Ah, you know how they are," he replied. "They need some time to wake up." He looked down at the rocks. "Hey guys, we brought guests this time! Hurry up!"

Rapunzel's and Eugene's jaws dropped. "But... they are rocks!" Rapunzel finally managed to utter.

"Sure they are," Anna agreed, poking one of them. "Gravel, it's time to wake up!"

"Are you blind?" Kristoff asked her. He pointed at another rock. "Gravel is over there. That's Basalta!"

"Wait a minute – last time you told me that this was Gravel's place!"

"Sure, but Basalta is his wife. They change places once in while."

"Oh! Well, I guess that makes sense." She looked at the two Coronians. "Don't worry, guys, they'll be ready in a second!"

This scene was becoming more and more insane. He and Rapunzel had known the Arendelle royals for more than two years now... and Eugene knew that Kristoff was a bit weird once in a while... but THIS? This was actually getting a bit scary. He wondered if he and Rapunzel could reach the sled before Anna and especially Kristoff could catch up...

"Eugene?" He could hear that Rapunzel's voice was very concerned too, even before he looked into her face. "Is this some... ridiculous play or something?"

"I have no..."

That's when the rocks suddenly... changed. It happened really quickly, but all of a sudden they weren't stones anymore, but... well, stone people. And they started to swarm Kristoff and Anna.

"It's you, dearies!"

"You should visit us way more often!"

"Kristoff, let's play!"

"Is there any fashion for trolls in Arendelle yet, Anna?"

"Guys, GUYS!" Kristoff shouted. He pointed at Rapunzel, who was clinging to her husband now, both staring at the weirdness in front of them. "We have guests, remember?"

Anna made a dramatic gesture towards Rapunzel and Eugene. "Troll tribe of the Arendelle mountains," she declaimed. "I'd like to present to you... Princess Rapunzel and Prince Eugene of Corona."

The... trolls looked at them and a collective "Ooooooohh!" escaped their... throats? And then they turned into round rocks again and rolled towards them. Eugene's escape instincts kicked in in time, but since he was unwilling to leave his wife behind, it was too late – the rocks had already surrounded them and turned back into trolls. Rapunzel shrieked when one of them poked her.

"Is this a Coronian dress? It seems ill-suited for our mountain, my dear."

"Are you a real prince? Kristoff only became one when he married Anna."

"Kristoff's more of a troll than a prince though."

"Do you have trolls in Corona too?"

"Of course not, dummy! Corona is too warm for trolls!"

"Oh! Do you have Ogres then?"

All Eugene could do was to hold his wife close and try to shake off rock-hard hands as soon as they tried to touch parts of his clothes... all the while trying to tune out Kristoff's and Anna's laughter. Elsa had sounded like these people could help them... but right now it seemed like they had been sent to an insane asylum instead. He made a mental note to immediately start running whenever Arendelle's queen mentioned anything about surprises ever again.

* * *

Rapunzel was sitting on a stone right now – a real stone, she hoped –, listening to her husband's story of how he had died. She had heard it so often now, and she had been part of it, but she loved hearing it from Eugene. He was quite an actor, though a bit full of himself at times still, and he had managed to calm down even the trolls, who's eyes were right now glued to his lips, following him in thought as he ran through the woods, hunted by Maximus and the guards.

"Rapunzel?"

The princess turned around. Anna and Kristoff were standing there, flanking a very old looking troll. He wore some... Rapunzel believed that it was some kind of ceremonial garb and his gaze was... not stern, but very serious. Somehow it made her shiver. They had been here for a few hours, and as soon as the shock had worn off, Rapunzel found that she kinda enjoyed the company of these beings. They loved fun and dance just as much as she did, and she had laughed out loud when Anna had told her what had happened when SHE had first met the tribe. She had enjoyed every minute, although she hadn't been quite sure why they were here... but right now she had a feeling that she would find out.

"Don't be afraid," Anna told her. "Pabbie is here to help you, Rapunzel."

"Help me?" Rapunzel repeated, not understanding. "What...?"

"It is true," the old troll suddenly said, still looking at her with this intense gaze. He approached her, which caused Rapunzel to move back instinctively. He stopped. "You had magic once, friend of Anna. Great magic. Bound in your hair, but now lost."

"How do you... did they tell you?" Rapunzel looked at Anna and Kristoff, who wordlessly shook their heads. She didn't know why, but she felt a little uncomfortable now.

"No, they did not," the old troll... Pabbie said. "I can see the traces of this magic that are still inside your hair. It must have been tremendously powerful for them to remain for so long." He paused for a moment. "And even more curious... it's magic opposed to Queen Elsa's ice abilities... summer magic."

"What do you want from me?" Rapunzel asked, swallowing hard.

He stretched out his stone hand. "Come with me," he ordered. Rapunzel flinched.

"He will not hurt you," Kristoff told her. "He raised me... and he is a shaman. Pabbie would NEVER harm someone, except for self-defense."

"Please go with him, Rapunzel," Anna reassured her friend, looking unusually serious. "He will not hurt you, I promise. He might even be able to HELP you."

Rapunzel hesitated for one more moment... but Anna was her friend. One of her very best friends. She couldn't think of a reason why the other princess would want to harm her, especially after Rapunzel had just helped mending the bond between the Arendelle sisters. She put her hand on Pabbie's. It was rough and hard, of course... but strangely warm for stone. The troll nodded and moved towards the rock crevice he had come from. Rapunzel looked to Anna one last time, and after the girl had given her a reassuring smile she followed the old troll.

And her jaw dropped for a second time. The cave was gigantic! There were glowing crystals everywhere, and most of the stone walls were covered with a strange, rune-like language and crude paintings. It was kinda cold, but there was a camp fire near the entrance, which Pabbie led her to. He sat down, and after a second she did the same.

"What... is this?" she asked him. All her fear was gone now, replaced by amazement.

"History," the old troll answered, smiling at her astonished face. "We trolls are a very old race... and we are born with the ability to hear the voice of the earth who gives life to everything. She tells us of the great powers that complement yet also fight against each other within her bounds. Summer and winter. Darkness and light. Living being's will and nature's power." He paused for a moment. "And sometimes she tells us when these powers take form or possess living beings... because that is usually when great conflicts happen. Like the spirit beings in the sand lands of the south which are so powerful that they can grant wishes. Or magical beasts like dragons and the people you humans call 'witches', who can also learn the Art and change the world significantly. Or people like you or Queen Elsa, who are simply born with inherent power."

"Wait... up there!" Rapunzel pointed at the painting of a woman with a grim face which was surrounded by what looked like demonic snowmen. "Is that... Elsa?"

"Yes and no," Pabbie said. "We knew immediately when the queen was born... I could feel the power in this tiny human body even up here. But we did not know how she would use this power." He looked up to the painting. "Since winter is harsh and hostile, we feared that Elsa would turn out like this... a bitter enemy to all life." He looked at her. "Just like YOU, although summer magic is inherently more suited to support life, could have used it to burn and destroy. I am glad that both of you turned out to be responsible... and I am glad that you lost your magic before you met the queen. Opposing forces, even in human form, rarely get along."

Rapunzel blinked. "You mean... that Elsa and me could have become enemies?"

"It is possible," Pabbie confirmed and shrugged. "I am glad it didn't come to this. But anyway..." His look intensified again. "You haven't asked me if your own story is here too. It is by the way. Over there."

Rapunzel immediately looked to where he pointed. And her eyes widened. There was a picture of a female human... but it surely wasn't her. The female was way taller and older than her, wore a green dress, had blond hair – that was true at least –, but only shoulder-length. And there was an aura of sunlight all around the female. Rapunzel blinked and stared at Pabbie, who was grinning.

"As said, the earth only tells us stories, but even for us she is hard to understand sometimes," he explains. "We don't know how the magicians really look. And when the earth spoke about you, we were told that your mother ate a plant which was kissed by the sun. But we don't know how you lost your magic. Would you grant me the honor of telling me, so that our story of your magic can be corrected?"

Rapunzel hesitated for a moment, but then she shrugged. Pabbie had not shown any sign of hostility, and she didn't really mind telling her story. "Sure," she agreed. "But you know, we could have just listened to Eugene's story."

"As entertaining as that might be, I am only interested in the magic in the story," Pabbie said. "Please, if you would..."

So Rapunzel told him in short that he was correct about the story of her birth, that she had been able to control her magic with her special song – at which point he muttered something like "incantation magic" – and at last how Eugene had cut off her hair, destroying the magic in it, and how she had cried for him and these tears had somehow brought him back to life again.

"Very interesting. Thank you for your tale, it will be remembered," Pabbie told her, nodding. "Yet I think there is something in your story that you did not see, because you cannot see the flow of magic. I would like to confirm it, so... may I take a look at your memories? It won't hurt you in any way, I assure you."

Rapunzel nodded. She believed that the old troll didn't mean to harm her, even though she still flinched when he put his hard stone hand on her forehead. Both of them closed their eyes.

"Ah," the princess heard the troll. "I see... so that is what happened. Your mother was indeed right."

"Mother?" Rapunzel opened her eyes, moved away from the troll's hand and stared at him. "What do you know about my mother?"

Pabbie stayed calm. "Princess Anna told me that your mother wrote a letter to Queen Elsa. That is why she and Kristoff brought you here. Your mother is very worried about you... she thinks that the magic you used to save your husband made you unable to bear children."

Rapunzel's eyes widened and she instinctively put her hands on her belly. "What? That... no, that's wrong... I'm not..." She paused. Dread was spreading through her body. "It's true, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Pabbie confirmed. "Queen Elsa's magic can never be taken from her – it is part of her nature. YOU were born with magic too, but only because the magic was transferred to you from the Sun Plant. What can be transferred, can also be taken away... as it was, when your husband cut off the vessel of your magic, your hair. But the last shreds of it, the tiny bit of magic that had merged with you while you grew up... you transferred it to him. But you longed for something truly unnatural, to cross the border between life and death itself – the little bit of magic you had left was not enough. So in your desperation you inadvertently fueled the sun magic with the gift of life-giving every woman has." He closed his eyes and sighed. "It was enough to bring your loved one back... but it left you barren."

"No!" Rapunzel could not hold back the tears. She didn't want to believe what Pabbie had said, but deep in her heart she knew that he was telling the truth. All these years she had wished to repay Eugene for sacrificing his own life for her by giving him the thing he hadn't had as a child... a true, complete family. And it was not just him... she herself would have been ecstatic to have kids and be able to give them what she had never had... a childhood in freedom. Not to mention her parents who would have been overjoyed, and all of Corona because there would have been another heir to the kingdom. And now... she put her hands over her eyes and started sobbing. "Please no... I... I wanted to have children... so badly."

She didn't hear Pabbie standing up and walking over to her, that's why she was startled when his hand fell on her shoulder. She put her hands away and after blinking the tears away she could see him again. He was smiling at her.

"Didn't you listen to me, child?" he gently asked her. "Your magic was transferred from the Sun Plant to you. And you transferred it to your husband to save him. His life force is now strong again. It should be possible to transfer your unwillingly given ability to nurture life back to you again."

"You... you mean...?"

"Come, child," Pabbie said instead of answering her. "We need to prepare you for the ceremony."

* * *

What was he doing here? He was sitting in a strange cave with even stranger runes and stories, with a huge bonfire warming him. Which was a good thing because his upper body was naked, and some trolls had painted strange symbols on him. They had told him that this was part of some ritual, but he wasn't sure... a fun-loving bunch like the trolls could just as easily have been playing a practical joke on him. Other trolls were sitting around the bonfire, no more bothered by the heat than the cold outside, and were currently humming and chanting like some strange cult. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Rapunzel, he would be outta here in a second!

Rapunzel... that was even more mortifying. Not even the fact that his wife had agreed to bare her upper body too, it hadn't taken much to convince him that beings made of rock didn't find a human body appealing. But she at least seemed to know why they were HERE. HE had no idea what these trolls were doing. And since he didn't have anything to focus on, the very much naked body of his beautiful wife next to him was quite distracting.

"Drink!"

He blinked. The old troll that was called "Pabbie" or something was offering him a bowl with some kind of liquid inside. I didn't really look good.

"Uh... thanks. I'm not thirsty."

"Eugene." Rapunzel's strange voice... kinda hopeful and sad at once... nearly made him turn towards her, but in the last moment he remembered her nudity and his head remained where it was. Although it blushed a bit. "Please drink it."

Well, he couldn't really argue with her. And maybe all this was what Elsa had talked about. Though he WOULD have a word with the queen of Arendelle about how he felt about her "surprises". He drank the liquid. It was as disgusting as it looked. AND as alive – he could FEEL it wriggle inside of his stomach!

"What the...?"

"Shhh," Pabbie ordered and walked around Eugene, placing his hands on the man's back. "Don't interrupt the ceremony. Listen to the song."

Song? Well... now that he listened to it... there WAS a certain rhythm in the singsong. And now some trolls began to walk around the bonfire, creating shadows and rhythmic stomping in the process. It was kinda hypnotic. The last time he had felt this way he'd had too much beer. Was Rapunzel humming now too? He grinned stupidly. She had such a beautiful voice! He wanted to tell her that, but then Pabbie suddenly started moving his hands on his back. And the old troll started mumbling.

"Man! Live-starter! Dead but not dead one! The gift you received, spread throughout your body... we collect it, bundle it, prepare it. It is not intended for men, and time has come to return it!"

Eugene didn't really know what happened... His head was feeling quite heavy now, but he felt like... something... was drained from different parts of his body and gathered in his belly. His body began to shiver and he suddenly had an uneasy feeling inside of his stomach.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Whaddaya...?"

Then the troll suddenly pressed hard against his back. And Eugene felt the insatiable urge to give back what he had received, quite literally. So he put the bowl in his hands to his mouth and... did just that. For Rapunzel's sake he hoped that he had not ruined the ritual. When his stomach was content again, someone took the bowl away from him while he was still breathing hard. When he could see clearly again someone had mixed his... gift with the disgusting liquid from before... and the bowl was in Rapunzel's hands. She had a look of disgust on her face.

"Hey, wait a minute!" he shouted when he realized what she intended to do. "Ya can' drink that, blondie! Thass juss gross!"

"Quiet!" Paddie hissed behind him and hit him on the back, causing Eugene to cough. "It is your turn, princess."

Rapunzel took a deep breath. "It has to be done, Eugene," she whispered. "For the sake of both of us." Then she put the bowl to her lips and drank the disgusting liquid. After that Paddie began painting stuff on her back with his hands too. Had Eugene felt any better, he would have hit the guy for touching HIS wife! Well, it was probably better this way, it would have hurt him more than the guy made of stone...

"Woman! Live-nurturer! Weaver of summer's magic! We return to you what is rightfully yours, so that nature can take its course again! Merge with it, make it yours, become whole again!"

His hands were now barely above Rapunzel's butt, and Eugene was getting ready to smack the old pervert, and consequences be damned, when Paddie pushed hard and Rapunzel gasped. Eugene blinked. Was there some kind of... golden glow around her body right now? His mind was still a bit fuzzy, so he wasn't sure.

"Blondie," he mumbled. "Whass goin' on here?"

"Whass goin' on?" Rapunzel seemed to be dazed herself now, but he didn't really care when she put her hand around his neck and yanked him forward until their foreheads touched. The predatory look in her eyes sent shivers down his spine. "Now we wait until the ceremony's over... then we get dress', go down to da castle with Anna 'n Kristoff... and then you and me will make a baby!"

Eugene blinked and grinned rather stupidly. He didn't really get what was happening here... but somehow it felt like everything was alright. Well, that and the prediction of his wife was one he was REALLY looking forward to fulfill.

"Oh," he said. "Alright."

The singsong was getting softer now, like a lullaby. A stone hand pulled him down on the furs he and Rapunzel had been sitting on. He didn't mind and closed his eyes. He had a feeling that he would need all of his strength in the coming days.

* * *

The last part is a bit... strange. Does it fit into the story? The next chapter will probably be about Pascal and Olaf.


	8. Growing families

nikkibecket1997: No, Eugene won't drop dead. Because it's MAGIC! :) Seriously though, people can be resuscitated, and they are fine even if you remove the defibrillator, that's how I imagined it.

crossoverauthor12484 & Lord Destroyer: I hadn't really imagined a love interest for Elsa... I seriously believe she wouldn't dare getting pregnant as long as her magic wasn't somehow blocked for the entire pregnancy, and for that I think you'd need power on the level of Genie. But I have an idea for a chapter with a young Coronian royal talking to her about a marriage without an heir, but he would be an OC - there is just no fitting Tangled-character for her. Should I write that chapter or should Elsa stay solo?

mariasantara: I think I came up with the Rapunzel/troll idea because I wanted the Coronians to have a problem too for once - and for a royal couple heirs are very important. Rapunzel's fertility flowing into Eugene with her life magic kinda emerged from that.

Sorry it took so long, I'm kinda busy lately. Enjoy!

* * *

**Growing families**

Why had he agreed to this?

He could have been in Corona now. Where it was warm. Thomas liked him because he wasn't a bad chess player, although he sometimes needed help with moving the heavier chess pieces. Was it his fault that the king's chess set was made of metal? And about as big as himself? Anyway, he would have been fine with keeping Rapunzel's parents company for a few days. But no, Rapunzel had looked at him THAT way and he had been doomed. That look had to be the reason why her and Eugene were married. NO one could resist it.

And now Pascal was here. In Arendelle. In the midst of winter, when it was COLD! Granted, he was in a room which was heated quite well, but he only needed to look outside of the window to shudder. He was a chameleon, a cold-blood animal! Just WHY had Rapunzel insisted that he tagged along when she visited her friends in a winter country? There was snow EVERYWHERE! Elsa, the SNOW QUEEN, was working in the room right next to them! And then there was... HIM.

"Hi!" The guy stormed in, his arms stretched wide. "I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"

Pascal sighed. He knew that! Even the two toddlers who were playing on the ground right now knew that, and they were just learning the language. It wasn't like Olaf hadn't said this sentence to either of them for a million times. And it wasn't even that he didn't like the snowman... well, except the part that he was made of SNOW... he was just frustrated by the whole situation. He raised the scales pointedly who functioned as his eyebrows.

"Not right now then?" Olaf concluded, still smiling. "Well, alright. How have they been?"

Pascal pointed at the children who were currently staring at the walking, talking snowman. Ragnar, Anna's and Kristoff's son, was smiling. Understandable, since he was used to Olaf. Ragnar was a bit over one year old, blonde hair like his father, but with the more delicate facial features of his mother. He had just learned his first words and was currently driving his parents insane with his ability to stand up and reach potentially dangerous things, since he had also inherited his mother's tendency to try things first and think about consequences later.

Eve, Rapunzel's daughter, was still shy. She was nearly two and a half years old, able to have a conversation beyond one-word-sentences and – thank god – had already learned about most of the dangerous things in her immediate surroundings. She had Rapunzel's green eyes and brown hair... well, no surprise there, since both family trees were filled with those, but her grin was a bit too sassy to be anything else's but Eugene's. Pascal was convinced that she would be one hell of a teenager. Here in Arendelle she didn't grin very often though. Since all the people here were strangers it wasn't that strange, but she got along with Ragnar most of the time and Anna being so similar in nature to her mother had made her warm up to Arendelle's princess pretty fast too. She was still scared of Olaf though. Everyone had tried to reassure her that the snowman was not scary, but Olaf was a stranger AND made of snow – that was too much for her young brain to like immediately.

Well, at least they had been playing on their own for a while. Pascal had understood that Eugene, Rapunzel, Anna and Kristoff needed some time for themselves once in a while, so he hadn't been particularly bothered that they had decided to jaunt with Kristoff's sled – as soon as Rapunzel had told him that he of course didn't have to accompany them on their journey into the icy cold which he despised. But Elsa had volunteered to stay behind and watch the children. And then, when some guy had brought her some papers to sign, she had shifted the responsibility on Olaf and him.

"Well, Elsa is the queen," Olaf interjected who watched the children play with a bright grin on his face. "She really, REALLY likes to spend time with Ragnar, especially after he got used to her cool skin, but she has many responsibilities. You know, for a while I was jealous of the baby because both Anna AND Elsa spent all their time with him." He pointed at his cheeks. "Am I blushing now?"

Pascal blinked. No, the snowman wasn't blushing. Where had THAT come from?

"Oh," Olaf mumbled dejectedly. "And I thought saying this was embarrassing enough. Guess I'll have to practice harder if I want to learn how to blush. Anyway," he said, his voice becoming loud and cheerful again, "Elsa actually volunteers most of the time when Anna and Kristoff need a babysitter, although she was a bit shy around the baby during the first months. When Anna and Kristoff are somewhere else, she often tells the staff not to bother her for a few hours. I was only allowed to stay because I promised not to talk. Boy, was that hard!"

Pascal raised an eye-scale. He could tell!

"It's then when she can really enjoy the silence... because nowadays her room isn't her prison anymore, it's her sanctuary. She loves having Anna around, bringing motion, laughter and chaos into her dull everyday life, and she's still warming up to other people, but she told me once that after thirteen years of isolation it is still hard to be around humans ALL the time. That's why she enjoys these quite hours with Ragnar, because she loves him and he needs HER, not the queen, but he is not yet an exhausting whirlwind like Anna."

"Didn't I also tell you to keep this a secret, Olaf?" Elsa was still working in the other room, but she obviously had heard them talk.

"Yes, you di... ooops! I'm sorry!" Olaf squeaked. Pascal just rolled his eyes and Ragnar stopped playing with his Sven-plushie and Kristoff-doll, looking around, frowning. He hadn't quite grasped the concept yet that people sometimes did NOT always show up immediately after you had heard their voice.

"Auntie is there," Eve told him, putting the Anna-doll down and pointing at the wall behind her. Ragnar blinked and then smiled at her. Then they continued playing.

"It's alright," Elsa answered, seemingly chuckling. "We are around friends. Just don't tell any strangers. Are the kids alright?"

"I'd say so," Olaf shouted, a bit too loud for Pascal's ears. "What do you think?" Pascal looked at the children and nodded. Since they had stopped throwing a stuffed ball at him, it had been fine. "Pascal thinks so too!"

"Good."

"Hey, is something wrong?" Olaf asked, a bit more quiet now. It seemed like he had noticed that Pascal wasn't that happy. "Would you rather be with Princess Rapunzel now?"

Pascal shook his head vehemently and pointed at the window and the snow behind it. For extra emphasis he turned his skin paler, like if he had been frozen solid.

Olaf chuckled. "I see. But when you visited us in summer some time ago, when Elsa was trying to stay away from Anna and Kristoff and Rapunzel helped her, you did like Arendelle, didn't you?" He became dreamy-eyed. "Ah, I want to visit Corona too one day... Anna told me much about the different plants, cloths, houses, but I want to see them myself." His face fell and he started to whisper. "It's too bad that Elsa doesn't have time to accompany Anna and Kristoff most of the time when they visit Corona. I'd really love to go too, but then Elsa would be alone... of course there would still be people here, but no family anymore, and she kinda IS my mother. I KNOW she would tell me that she was fine, and Anna always tells me that loving someone is the best thing ever, as long as you don't give up your own happiness to please the other one... cause if you are not happy, then once your beloved notices that, he or she probably won't be either... but I just wouldn't be able to enjoy the vacation as long as Elsa stayed here."

Pascal grinned. The snowman was way too talkative most of the time... but he was alright. It was true, Pascal liked to see other countries than Corona as much as Rapunzel. No surprise, since they had both spent the main part of their youth in a glorified cage. He just needed some warmth to enjoy traveling, just as Olaf needed his "mother" to enjoy traveling WITH him. He gave the snowman a friendly nudge, although he pulled back his limb quickly. It had become white already, but it got green again as soon as he shook it. Well, sometimes you had to postpone your own desires to give your beloved ones time to enjoy life themselves. And it wasn't REALLY so bad here in the castle, as long as it was warm. As soon as Rapunzel and Eugene were back, he'd ask Olaf to accompany him searching for secret places again. They had visited every room in the castle already, but Pascal was still convinced that every castle had at least one or two secret rooms.

"Sure," Olaf exclaimed excitedly. "And this time we'll find it for sure!"

"No!"

They turned their heads around. Ragnar was frowning at Eve, pressing his dolls against his chest. Eve was standing in front of him, her hand grabbing the head of the Kristoff-doll.

"What's going on, kids?" Olaf asked. When Eve looked at them, Pascal raised his eye-scale and gazed at her questioningly.

"I want man-doll," Eve explained, pouting that Ragnar was still holding onto the doll. She held up the Anna-doll. "An-na wants man-doll. Ragnar can play with ball."

Pascal grinned for a moment. Kristoff wouldn't be pleased to be called "man-doll"... he'd like to see the man's face. Still, this was not good behavior. Rapunzel wouldn't be pleased that Eve had tried to get this doll without asking for it nicely. He shook his head.

"Princess Eve, Ragnar still wants to play with the doll," Olaf told the young girl. He smiled at her, but she was still wary of him. "You can have it later. Or do you want more dolls?"

The girl didn't seem to be pleased, but she said nothing more and let go of the Kristoff-doll. She sat down and began to play with the Anna-doll and the Elsa-doll again. Pascal was a bit worried. Since Eve was growing up as an only child, she was pretty much used to get nearly everything she wanted. And since Eugene, Rapunzel AND her parents were overjoyed that their dearest wish had been fulfilled, they let Eve get away with too many things. He'd need to have a word with Rapunzel in the near future.

"Oh come on," Olaf disagreed. "Don't be so hard on her, she's still so young. Aren't you glad too that your family is getting bigger?"

Well... yes, Pascal actually was. At first he had been overwhelmed by the life in the palace... and pretty annoyed that Rapunzel suddenly spent so much time with Eugene and even more with her parents... but once he had gotten to know them, it had become better. As said, the king and him liked to play chess once in a while and once Primrose had heard that he had been Rapunzel's only friend for nearly her entire life, she had done everything she could to make the castle a home for him too. Eugene... well, he had saved Rapunzel from slavery. Enough said. And even Eve had her good sides... although she was a bit too playful for someone his size at times.

"You think that's bad?" Olaf interjected. "I mean, I LOVE that I am part of this family, but do you know how confusing life here has become since Kristoff and Anna married? Like that time when I was wandering through the castle at night and I heard Anna shouting that she felt so hot... and well, I thought maybe she's sick, I should go in and cool her skin a bit because what are friends for? But when I stormed in she and Kristoff both seemed to be feverish since they were both naked... but they didn't appreciate me offering to help them at all, and every time I try to talk to anyone about this, Anna and Kristoff just get angry again, Sven just rolls his eyes and Elsa starts giggling..."

Pascal facepalmed and changed to blush red. Fortunately Olaf was too lost in his memory to notice it.

"... and also Ragnar. I really wanted to play with him from day one, but he started crying because I was cold and strange. Took quite some time until he got used to me. But you know, even though Anna was really busy with the little guy, she still gave me some good advice like being funny around Ragnar and saving the touching thing for later, and Elsa taught me to be patient because even if times are bad now, good things will happen eventually. Heck, even Kristoff told me that many nobles considered him to be beneath them even now – but he said he won't be offended since those guys will either come around and judge him by his actions, or if they don't, they aren't worth being his friends anyway." The snowman winced. "Well, the last part wasn't such good advice since I REALLY wanted to be friends with Ragnar, but they all still cared for me. Families are great!"

Pascal nodded. He could relate to that. Well, not the interrupt-couple's-private-time-thing, at least not lately, but when Eve had been a newborn she had been scared of him too for a while. It had taken much persuasion from Rapunzel to change that... and strangely enough Eugene of all people had told him, like Kristoff had told Olaf, that first expressions weren't the most important ones. The royal families were indeed quite similar. He grimaced. Though he could easily live without Eve's sudden urges to play with him like a doll whenever he had been careless enough to get caught. He really hoped the little girl would grow out of this soon. In times like that he wished that she WAS still scared of him.

"Is that so bad?" Olaf asked. "I mean, she at least likes you. Some boys in town once stole my head and used it as a ball until Kristoff showed up."

Pascal shrugged. That did sound awful, alright... but the snowman was indestructible and didn't feel any pain, so it couldn't have been THAT horrible.

"Well, it was more confusing than horrible," Olaf admitted, scratching his head. Then he grinned. "But you know, you can turn invisible! That's pretty amazing too, don't you think?"

Pascal smiled and changed his color to match the wooden table he was sitting on. True, that had its advantages... mostly when he saw Eve coming and had time to hide. Usually the girl didn't mind playing hide-and-seek-catch. Most of the time Pascal managed to evade her and she stayed happy nonetheless as long as they were playing. Then they were interrupted by crying.

It was Ragnar. It seemed like Eve's patience had run out and she had taken away the younger boy's Anna-doll. Now that Olaf and Pascal – who had turned green again – were staring at her, she pouted at them, convinced that she had a right to do that. But when Pascal shook his head and Olaf walked over to her, tears began to form in her eyes too.

"You can't do that, Princess Eve," Olaf told her, reaching for the doll. The princess was whimpering now, obviously still afraid of the strange being, but she held onto the doll. "This is not yours. If you want it, you have to ask for it nicely. Now give me the doll." But that only resulted in Eve starting to cry too. Pascal shook his head again. He agreed with Olaf, but that definitely hadn't been the way to calm things down.

"What's wrong over there?" they heard Elsa's concerned voice. "Did something happen to the kids?" They heard a chair being moved, so the queen had probably stood up. "Are they hurt?"

Pascal shivered. He didn't really want the queen to come over. I might not be her attention, but when she was concerned, the temperature always dropped a bit. Not bad enough usually to upset the children, but a cold-blood animal like him always got sleepy then. He rapidly changed his color to alarm red to signal Olaf to do something.

"Don't worry, Elsa," the snowman shouted, trying to sound optimistic while still trying to pry the doll loose. "We've got everything under contro-whoa!"

Or not. Eve had released the doll suddenly, maybe so she could focus on crying better, and Olaf had lost his balance, falling on his back. Pascal would have slapped his forehead if it hadn't been for the fact that the Ragnar had stopped crying and Eve, maybe missing the accompaniment, was only whimpering now. Both were staring at the snowman. When Olaf sat up again, his head wasn't on his shoulders anymore. His hands tried to touch where his head should be, but couldn't find it, so the body stood up and tumbled around the room, with the head on the floor giving rather poor directions.

"To the left... no, no that left, MY left... now be caref... look what you've done, now the baby porridge is on the floor, you klutz... no, I'm over HERE, can't you hear me... oh, wait, I am the one with the ears..."

"Is everything alright?"

Pascal had felt the queen before she had arrived. He turned around and shrugged, turning a bit more blue because of the coolness around Elsa's body. The room was quite a mess, but the children were not crying anymore... he wasn't quite sure if they were alright. That was when Ragnar started chortling in delight. "Af!" he said, pointing at Olaf's body who was now standing in front of Pascal's table, shuffling his feet because his mother had seen the mess he had created. Then Ragnar pointed at his aunt, smiling brightly. "Etha!" Well, he would learn not to butcher names eventually.

Arendelle's queen smiled nonetheless and patted Olaf's shoulder. "That's right," she said in her most gentle voice. "I'm Elsa. And this is Olaf." She addressed Eve. "Isn't he a funny snowman, Eve?"

Now Eve started giggling too. "Olaf is funny!" she repeated. She pointed at the snowman. "Has no head!"

"Ead!" Ragnar agreed with her and the children grinned at each other, being friends again.

"That's right, he has lost his head." Elsa put her hand on her chin and pursed her lips, feigning thought. Then she looked at Pascal, smiling. "Maybe someone could help him find his head again. What do you think, Pascal?"

Pascal winced. He didn't really want to sit on Olaf's cold body... but as long as the kids stayed happy, he could probably cope with it. He hopped on Olaf's shoulders and used his weight to signal the body in which direction it should move. And it seemed to work since the body began to move towards the head.

Eve clapped her hands, shouting "Ride, Pascal!", and Ragnar joined in clapping, still giggling.

"Yes, that's right... just a little bit closer... yes, now you got me. Bow down, I'm right here. Ahhhh," Olaf sighed when his head finally was on his shoulders again, Pascal using the opportunity to jump down on the ground. His limbs were cold enough already and he was getting a bit sleepy. When Olaf was done, he looked down upon the chameleon. "Thanks," he said. Then he frowned. "But you know, you could have done that before. Then there wouldn't have been THAT much chaos."

Well... although it was still mostly Olaf's fault, that was somehow true. Involuntarily Pascal changed his color to match the ground. Which caused Eve to jump on her feet, her eyes burning with anticipation.

"Hide and seek!" the little girl shouted and ran towards Pascal. The chameleon's eyes widened and he immediately moved away as fast as he could, constantly changing colors to match his surroundings. Then Ragnar stopped chortling and started to crawl around, mumbling something like "Id-a-See!". Oh, for the love of... wasn't it enough that Eve was after him? Now two hyperactive children were trying to get their hands on him! He pressed himself against the wall, hoping that they would get bored soon. But then...

"Ah-ha!" Olaf shouted triumphantly, pointing at and moving towards him. "I found you!"

Pascal cursed the snowman mentally and started moving again. When Rapunzel got back he REALLY needed to talk to her about how to raise her daughter! His last hope was that Elsa would stop the children from running and crawling around because they could hurt themselves... but when the Snow Queen started laughing out loud, he knew that he was doomed.

* * *

"Eve! Where are you?"

"Ragnar! Mommy is home!"

"Hush, you two," Kristoff told them when he followed his wife and Rapunzel into the castle's main building. "What if they are asleep right now?"

"Or worse," Eugene added. "What if they have taken Elsa as a hostage?"

"Very funny, Eugene," Rapunzel said, looking back at him, then addressing Anna. "But your husband's right, if they are asleep, we should not wake them."

Anna nodded. "Right." She grinned "And if they really have kidnapped Elsa, we might still be able to surprise them."

Both of them giggled, making their husbands look at each other, rolling their eyes. Then all of them went to the playroom. They heard the voices long before they reached it.

"... is dangerous. But don't be afraid, you two. Our hero will come and save us." Elsa.

"Rarrrrr! No hero will come! I am the mighty Marshmallow and you will be mine forever!" Olaf. And some giggling.

"You are silly." Eve.

"Waaaahh! Me, silly? You will regret calling me... Wait, who are you?" Olaf continued.

"It's our hero!" Elsa said, her voice feigning excitement. "Come, you two, let's cheer for him!"

"Pascal, save me!" Eve demanded, obviously enjoying her damsel-in-distress-role.

"Af!" Ragnar cheered, seemingly not understanding that he was cheering for the "bad guy", but being all the more excited.

The four royals outside looked at each other, smiling. It seemed like the kids were having a good time with their babysitters. Anna and Rapunzel peeked inside. Olaf and Pascal were standing in front of each other, Olaf trying his best to look as menacing as Marshmallow, but failing miserably. Behind them Elsa was sitting next to the wall, pressing Ragnar and Eve close to her. Eve was grinning at the play in front of her, Ragnar didn't really seem to get what was happening, but everyone seemed to have fun, so he was smiling too. Then Elsa spotted them.

"We are saved," she told the children. "Our reinforcements have arrived." She pointed at Anna's and Rapunzel's heads in the doorframe.

"Mama!" the two children shouted simultaneously, their faces lighting up. Rapunzel waited for her daughter running into her arms, Anna ran inside and picked up her son who had just stood up, and started kissing him on every spot of skin she could reach, making him giggle.

"Hello, my dear," Rapunzel warmly greeted her daughter, smiling at her. "Did you have fun?"

Eve nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Ragnar's dolls are pretty, I want those too! And Olaf had no head! And we played hide-and-seek! And Olaf was a bad man and Pascal was a hero!"

"Wow, that sounds exciting." Rapunzel scooped up her daughter, frowning. "Eugene, our daughter is getting heavy," she informed her husband.

"Daddy!"

"Hey, beauty." Eugene smiled at his daughter and ruffled her hair. "Were you nice to Pascal?"

"Yes!" Eve claimed, still smiling.

Eugene looked at Pascal, who was making the head-off-gesture. He grinned apologetically. His daughter was already quite a handful. He could imagine that Pascal's day had been quite hectic, considering that Olaf was a rather... enthusiastic fellow too. He was still impressed about Elsa, though, looking at Arendelle's queen. The woman had really changed since Ragnar had been born. Kristoff and Anna had told him that Elsa had formed a close bond with her nephew, and it had helped her become more natural when dealing with other people too. He had believed that, and he could also believe that Elsa and Anna sometimes played like if they still were children, but seeing the queen having real fun while playing with two small children, a chameleon and a half-crazy snowman... Elsa had definitely become more at ease around other people in the nearly six years he had known her. She noticed his glance and put on a smile, which he returned.

"Oooh, Raggi," Anna cooed, rubbing her nose against Ragnar's cheek. "Did you miss mommy so much that auntie Elsa needed two more babysitters?"

"I don't mind," Olaf interjected. "I like being a part of this family!"

Elsa stood up and smoothed her dress. "That's just because his parents are spoiling him rotten," she calmly responded to her sister's accusation.

"Hey! He is very well-behaved and he'll be a great king once!" Anna announced, glaring at her smiling sister. "Tell her, Kristoff!"

"Dada!"

"Hey, big guy." Kristoff patted his son's head, smiling at him. Then he looked at his sister-in-law. "Thank you for babysitting, Elsa."

"Kristoff!" Anna wailed. "Why are you siding with her?"

"It was my pleasure, Kristoff," Elsa answered, looking at the blonde man with a serious expression. "It always is."

Anna glared at her husband. "We'll talk about this later," she hissed, feigning anger.

"Of course we will," Kristoff agreed. He had long since learned that simply staying calm and smiling was the best way to deal with his wife's antics.

Anna huffed and focused on her baby again, mumbling in her baby-voice which amused Ragnar. Kristoff turned around and looked at Olaf and Pascal. "Thank you too for helping Elsa," he said. "It seems you three did a very good job." Olaf and Pascal grinned, looked at each other and nodded. It had been about time that someone acknowledged their hard work today! "Although I guess we'll need another bowl of baby porridge," Kristoff added, grinning. He had spotted the empty bowl and bits of porridge on the floor.

Olaf scratched his head, looking down, and Pascal's color changed to blush red again.

"Well, that is a rather funny story..." Olaf began to tell how that had happened. Pascal didn't listen, but looked at the happy people in the room. All in all, they had done a good job. The kids were happy, their parents seemed to have had a good day too and even Elsa looked satisfied. Sure, the room was a mess, and the hide-and-seek-part hadn't been much fun for HIM... but seeing Eve, Eugene and Rapunzel glow with happiness had been worth it. Pascal smiled. Being part of a family was a good thing. Though he would still suggest a "Don't treat poor Pascal like a color-changing toy"-policy to Eve's parents later.

* * *

Well... the next chapter can be the Elsa/love interest-idea I mentioned (although I'm not sure how well that will turn out), or it can be a bonus chapter which will end the whole story. What shall it be?


	9. A scoundrel after my own heart

I hate stress at work. Usually I take it home and then I'm not in the mood to write. But now the chapter is done.

I agree with those of you who want Elsa to be with a non-magical male - while I'm not against Elsanna, it has been done to death and another person with magical powers (worst of all fire powers) would in my opinion de-mystify Elsa's magic and be pretty unimaginative (Avatar - The last Airbender already exists). I tried to weave my love interest OC into the overall story as best as I could, and since this is a Frozen/Tangled-crossover, he is from Corona - even though this doesn't make that much sense from a political standpoint, since Corona and Arendelle are already allies. Please tell me what you think of him, since I don't have that much experience with writing romances. Enjoy!

ellietischler: Thanks, I corrected the Eva/Eve-mistakes. That's what you get when you have too many days between writing chapters.

* * *

**A scoundrel after my own heart**

"Ragnar! Where are you?"

Elsa huffed – and if she hadn't been raised so well, she would have substituted being "pretty annoyed" with "thoroughly pissed". She had been really looking forward to this vacation in Corona. It was only the second time that she had found enough time to accompany Anna and Kristoff, this time also with Ragnar, on their traditional summer visit of Rapunzel's home country. And so far it had been worth it. No queenly duties, no nagging feelings of delaying her workload when she reserved some of her time to be with her family once in a while... sure, she had days off at home too, but few and hardly ever more than one or two at once.

Here she was just a visiting friend, and it felt so good! She had had great talks with a very thankful Primrose, Rapunzel and Eugene had shown her places they had already visited with Anna – even the tower her friend had grown up in! –, and she had had a great time dressing like a normal visitor from Arendelle and pretending to be just one of the crowd in the city. Anna would have loved to accompany her, but many people already knew her too well, so she had settled for dyeing her older sister's remarkable platinum hair brown and wishing Elsa much fun. Some people would say that Elsa was too old for fooling around like that, being 28 years old already, but she had enjoyed the experience of anonymity tremendously. She was pretty convinced that no one she had talked to had suspected that "Gerda" was NOT Queen Elsa of Arendelle's lady-in-waiting. All had been so well...

… and now this. She cursed the fact that Ragnar was so much like his mother! Anna had been exactly like this when she had been nearly three years old – a little bundle of adventurous spirit and boundless energy! Since he had learned running, the whole staff in Arendelle's castle had been constantly on guard – there was no telling when and where a small prince would surprise you or bump into you while you were carrying something of value. Kristoff usually tried to keep his son under control, but Anna would rather encourage the little boy to have as much fun as possible... and Elsa couldn't bring herself to disagree. Sure, Ragnar needed to learn some more rules too, and soon, but seeing the little boy thoroughly enjoying his childhood reminded Elsa of the joyful parts of her own childhood as well, rather than the painful and lonely parts. Anna had told her that this was indeed why she was so permissive with Ragnar... but sometimes Elsa suspected that her little sister was just too lazy to teach Ragnar royal behavior and expected her to do it.

And now he and Eve were on the loose somewhere in the Coronian castle, playing hide-and-seek with practically everyone else. And since Anna was pregnant with her second child right now and should avoid any stress – Kristoff and Elsa had tried to convince her not to travel to Corona this time, but the princess had been stubborn that she was just five months along and visiting Rapunzel and Eugene was a "tradition" now – Elsa had agreed to join Rapunzel, Eugene and some of the palace staff in finding her nephew and Eve. Which was easier said than done.

"Ragnar, Eve, this is not funny anymore!" she shouted. "Come out already, your parents are worried..."

That's when the door next to her swung open and someone marched out, bumping into Elsa and making her lose her balance and falling down.

"... is this noise abou-? Watch your step, you imbecile!"

Elsa looked up. Standing above her was a middle-aged man, probably a little younger than King Thomas. He wore something between a military uniform and formal wear and it fit him rather well, tall as he was. He had an angular face, a rather bulbous nose, and although his hair and beard were well-groomed... all that and the eyes which were currently piercing her made him look pretty grim by nature. He'd probably still look intimidating, or at least stern, if he tried to smile.

"No wonder this castle is like it is with incompetent domestics like you! Shouting louder than the brat of the princess... is it a wonder that you don't even hear someone opening a door? I will have to talk to Thomas about this..."

Elsa blinked, blushing a bit. She wasn't sure if it was more because of embarrassment for being mistaken for a maid or anger. "Excuse m-"

"Spare me!" the man interrupted her, scowling at her. "Just get out of my sight! Or rather, I'll leave myself, you can clean up the room meanwhile. And you better hope that I don't see you again while I'm here, or this will be your last day working for the royal family!"

The man didn't even wait for her answer, he just turned around, snorting angrily, and walked away. Elsa was still pretty shocked. In all her life she had not met anyone so rude! If Anna had been here this... person would have been hit by a torrent of probably very un-princessy words now at the latest. But Elsa was not her sister. Even now, seven years after her salvation, she was still awkward around people once in a while, especially if they behaved differently then she was used to. Maybe she had also held back instinctively... if she hadn't been too shocked to get angry, it could have been a diplomatic disaster. True, Corona and Arendelle were strong allies now, but freezing someone who seemed to be important enough to call the king by his first name could have been... unwise. Not to mention that this would have revived all those nasty rumors about her that had JUST died down... yes, it was better this way. Still, she thought while scowling, it was HIM who should rather avoid meeting Elsa again...

"Are you alright?"

Elsa looked up again. It was easy to spot that this guy was related to the rude one from before. He was also tall and well-built, though not overly muscular, and the fact that he wore the very same kind of uniform-suit pointed to a close relationship, probably father and son. His face had the same hard, angular form, although his nose was smaller, not dominating his face quite as much. Elsa had no doubt that whoever he was had all the right features to look intimidating IF he wanted to... but his features seemed less grim, mainly thanks to some small, brown locks messing up his short, kinda military hairstyle – it looked a bit cocky, but charming to Elsa. And also his blue eyes which were looking down at her in a soft and concerned way. It seemed like nature had tried to soften a quite intimidating blueprint, and he was trying to soften it further with his behavior. One of his hands was outstretched.

"Oh, umm..." Elsa blushed – something that hardly ever happened when she wasn't around a particular cheeky Anna –, as she realized that she had been staring at the young man for some seconds now. She was a bit angry at herself. She was acting like An... a lovesick teenager, not a queen! "I am not hurt, thank you." Then she remembered that she was still in disguise – and something, maybe the memory of the joy she had had in town today, urged her to add a quiet "my lord". What was wrong with her? Why was she acting this way? She took his hand and allowed him to pull her on her feet.

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking at their hands and frowning. "Is the floor this cold around here?"

"Um, no... I was just outside." She swallowed and assumed the waiting-demure pose which female staff members usually assumed around her. She still wasn't sure why she was acting like that. Impulsive improvisations like this were usually Anna's thing. "I was looking for E... the young princess."

"Eve?" The young man raised his eyebrow. She wasn't sure if he had become suspicious since she had nearly called the princess 'Eve'. "She burst into our room ten minutes ago or so, with a younger boy accompanying her... my father shooed them away pretty quickly, but I think she said something about 'hiding in the garden'."

"The garden!" Elsa exclaimed. "Thank you... my lord. She and Prince Ragnar of Arendelle have been playing hide-and-seek for a while now and their parents are getting worried."

"The heir of Arendelle?" The man straightened, probably involuntarily. He indeed seemed to have had a disciplined, militaristic upbringing. "I didn't know that he was still so young... and you are looking for them right now?"

"Yes." Elsa nodded. And WHY had she just curtseyed? Rather badly, since she hadn't needed to do so for years. "If you would excuse me..."

"No, wait! Would you mind if I accompany you?" He grimaced. "As long as my father doesn't need me, I could as well visit the garden for a moment of peace."

"Well... of course I don't mind, my lord" Elsa replied. "Though I am not sure how much peace there will be with the princess and the prince playing there." Her hand slapped her mouth shut. Why had she said that? Sarcastic comments like that were usually reserved for conversations with her family members, but certainly not other nobles. "I'm sorry! I didn't..."

But the man was laughing. "You just described Eve perfectly," he chuckled. "Shall we go?" He started walking. "By the way, what is your name? If I may ask?"

"My name is Gerda. And, um..."

He grinned at her. It wasn't the prettiest smile she had ever seen, his face simply wasn't made for that, but there was genuine happiness... and a certain amount of cheekiness behind it. "You may," he answered. "My name is Gerhard." He looked at her disguise. "So... you mentioned the prince and I haven't seen you before. Are you from Arendelle too?"

"Yes." Elsa's brain was working fast now. She didn't know if she could uphold her cover for very long, so she tried to imagine what he would ask her. How did Anna make up all her little fibs of why she was in the kitchen at night or what pragmatic reason she had for spending time with her older sister so easily? "I am the queen's lady-in-waiting."

"Queen Elsa's lady-in-waiting? I should have guessed you had such a high position, with your movements being so graceful." Sometimes Elsa hated it that her pale skin made a blush so easy to spot. She looked down to hide it, but she could practically feel Gerhard looking at her with genuine interest now. "Well, I definitely have some questions for you then... later, when we have found the kids. Oh, and since you are probably about to ask me why I don't call Eve 'princess'..." He paused and Elsa smiled. She would have asked that indeed. "... her mother is my cousin."

"Princess Rapunzel?" Elsa blinked. "So that means that your father...?"

"No," he interrupted her. "My mother was King Thomas' little sister. My father was a minor noble back then, but his family has had much influence in the military for generations. And yes, before Rapunzel's miraculous return I would have likely been first in line for the throne." When Elsa prepared to curtsy again, since this was probably appropriate to do for someone so close to a throne even for a lady-in-waiting, he shook his head. "Please don't. For the rest of the week I'll probably be walking on eggshells around the royal family. I'd really appreciate it if you treated me like a normal person... well, that might be inappropriate, let's say like a minor noble for now, like you might have assumed me to be. Would you do that for me?"

Elsa paused for a moment, eying the young man. He didn't seem to be like the suitors who had had the courage to show up in Arendelle to ask for the hand of the infamous Snow Queen. Some of them had tried to woo her with good looks and romantic talk, others had tried to appear pragmatic, telling her how much her country would benefit from an union, others again had tried to shine with good manners and diverse knowledge in conversations. All of them had failed to impress her, not only because they had tried to show her an ideal image instead of who they really were, but it was a big part. If she was honest, Elsa had to admit that she envied Anna. Kristoff was honest, down-to-earth and he supported her little sister in her decisions, yet also stopped her when she got too reckless... and the little girl that had long ago been locked away deep inside of Elsa craved such a soulmate too. And yet she was pragmatic enough to realize that there were not many men out there who would truly want a woman who could severely injure them by accident during lovemaking.

"Of course," she answered, a little late. They had reached the door to the courtyard now. "But forgive me, my lord..."

"Gerhard. Please, just for now."

"Alright... Gerhard." Elsa wasn't quite sure if she should ask that... but she had a feeling that this man and her had something in common. "Forgive me, but you said that your mother WAS the king's little sister... but you don't have to answer if it hurts you of course," she quickly added.

"Ah, you noticed that." His lips became thin when he remembered something not so pleasant. "Yes, my mother is dead. She died while she gave birth to me."

"I'm sorry," Elsa whispered, looking away. She had been wrong... they DID both know how a life without a parent felt, but at least Elsa had gotten to know her parents. Still, she probably understood him better than he thought. "I should not have asked that."

"Don't feel bad." This smile was not joyful like the last one and didn't soften his sharp features... but to Elsa it seemed more attractive, perhaps because she could relate to Gerhard's sadness so well. "As I said, I never got to know her. And I at least had my father and my brother. Many people are worse off." He looked at her strangely. "In fact... were not your queen and princess some of those people in the past?"

Elsa looked down while Gerhard opened the door that lead to the garden. "They were," she admitted, thinking back at her isolation years. "Things have gotten much better after the events of the queen's coronation though. Everybody is happy that their sad family history is in the past now." That was true. Even today people sometimes told them how sorry they felt for them and how glad they were that the sisters had been able to overcome all obstacles between them. It was nice. Actually in Elsa's opinion things were better than ever before. She was free to show everyone who she was, she and Anna had visited their parents' grave and finally shared their grief and Anna and Kristoff had created their family anew – their sad past was indeed gone.

"Hmm," Gerhard said. He looked around. "So, we are here. Looks exactly like last time. Shall we search for them?"

Elsa looked around too. Then she saw a small pond and smiled. "Actually," she said, "how about we just sit down there? Those two children have worried their parents all day, how about we just make sure they can't escape through the door without being seen, but don't play their game? Once they reveal themselves they have lost and we can send them back inside."

Gerhard grinned. "How devious!" he commented and sat down next to the pond. "I like it. I wanted to ask you some more questions anyway."

"Well then, ask ahead... Gerhard." Elsa sat down. "I'm sorry, this is still a bit strange." And it was. Rapunzel's immediate family were the ONLY nobles she had ever called by their first names... aside from her own family of course. But Gerhard was still a stranger.

Gerhard shrugged. "I promise I won't tell anybody," he told her. "So... would you mind telling me a bit about your queen?"

"I don't see why not," Elsa agreed, cocking her head. "Though... would YOU mind telling me why first?"

"Sure." Gerhard looked at the pond, seemingly getting lost in his memories. "Mainly it's because... no, I guess I'll have to tell you the whole story." He looked at her again, now being serious. "You might have noticed that my father... has quite a huge ego."

Elsa briefly smiled. "I might," she agreed. "I dare say... you are not much like your father."

"Definitely not." The young noble snorted and looked at the pond again. "He always said that I'm more my mother's child than his. He is by no means a fiend, that's not it, he DOES love me, but it was always clear to me that my older brother, as long as he still lived with us – and I will tell you why he doesn't anymore –, was his favorite son. My brother Vladimir was pretty much a brute... tall, strong, without fear, probably because he wasn't too bright. I was always more interested in politics and books than fighting, but we got along fine. Father was always a bit concerned that Vladimir was too simpleminded for political intrigues, but I thought that it would be fine as long as my brother would listen to my and father's advice." He paused. "That was until he vanished."

"You've lost your brother too?" Elsa asked, concerned. This kinda mirrored her own life, with first losing Anna's company and then her parents.

"Well... I'm not sure if he's dead. In fact I hope he's not." He pressed his lips together. "You know, in our youth, our father was a passionate huntsman. And Vladimir, always eager to impress our father, one day found one of my books, a fairy tale book, and read a story about a huntsman who tried to catch a unicorn and was outsmarted. And Vladimir probably thought that if HE could catch a unicorn – despite the fact that no one has seen a unicorn around here in hundreds of years –, then father would be incredibly proud of him." He shook his head. "And when I was twelve years old, he went into the woods... and vanished. We found some blood. Eventually it led us to a farm where the people told us that Vladimir had indeed been there... covered in blood and not knowing who he was. The last thing he knew was that some predator – he claimed that it must have been a unicorn – had ambushed him and that he had barely managed to fight it off, losing his memory in the process. When he was healthy enough, Vladimir left the farm, searching for his past."

Gerhard sighed. "Father searched for Vladimir for years, but he had simply vanished. And after he had finally accepted that, he told me that, since Rapunzel was still lost, one day I would be king. And from that day on I had no privacy anymore." He grimaced, took a small stone and flicked it into the pond. "Father was so worried that he might lose me too that there was always someone around me, as soon I left my room. Yet while I REALLY disliked that, I liked that father began to spend more time with me – even if it was just to mold me into a perfect king. At least what he thought would be a perfect king, which was why me disagreeing with him on some matters angered him greatly. The best thing though were the journeys."

Now he began to smile again. Elsa found herself smiling too, blinked and stopped it. Gerhard was not that attractive in a physical sense, usually Elsa preferred softer facial features like those of her own family... but his voice was made for storytelling. It was really easy to get lost in his tale.

"Since a king needs a queen, we traveled far and wide to visit royal families with daughters whom might be interested in marrying into the Coronian royal family in the future. It was great seeing different countries, different cultures... well, and some of the princesses were nice too." He grinned at Elsa and rubbed his chin. "At least those who were polite enough not to mention immediately that I wasn't exactly Prince Charming."

Elsa grinned back. "You are not so bad," she said... and blushed again when she realized that she had acted impulsively again. Anna would be really proud of her... as soon as she had stopped laughing at her.

"Thanks." He became serious again. "Well, back then I wondered why we didn't visit Arendelle. I knew that the king and the queen there had two daughters, but when I asked father told me that those two girls were 'not available', as he called it." He grimaced. "My father isn't much of a diplomat," he apologized. "That's why I am interested in Queen Elsa by the way. I got to know most royal families around Corona, but not Queen Elsa and Princess Anna... but I should finish the story first. While I was still first in line to the throne, father was eager to socialize with foreign royals... but he was quite arrogant around minor nobility. And when Rapunzel suddenly came back... his whole world shattered. Suddenly me marrying a foreign princess and becoming king was out of reach, and most of the minor noble families weren't willing to consider a marriage because of his former behavior."

Gerhard sighed. "He's just so stubborn. He doesn't even consider apologizing or trying to approach a minor noble family he hasn't put off yet... in fact at first he even tried to talk uncle Thomas into marrying me and Rapunzel." He looked at Elsa. "That would have been awkward, marrying a first cousin whom you have never seen before. Anyway, when he heard that she loved Flynn Rider, he was furious. He and uncle Thomas had quite a heated discussion that 'you can't let your daughter marry a street rat'." He winced. "He even asked Rapunzel herself if she really wanted to 'poison her royal with criminal blood'. She didn't take that very well, I could hear her shouting on the other side of the castle."

Elsa's eyes widened. Gerhard was the son of the arrogant noble who had reminded Eugene of his past mistakes as a criminal and – although he didn't know it – had nearly succeeded in breaking up the Coronian royal couple? What a coincidence!

"That sounds like dinner today will be quite interesting," she remarked... and quickly added: "Maybe I should warn the queen beforehand." She paused for a moment and looked at the man before her. She had to actively will the grass beneath her to stay unfrozen – the revelation that Gerhard was the son of the man who had nearly ruined Rapunzel's and Eugene's marriage, although that was not Gerhard's fault, had shaken her, and as always her powers were getting restless. "But though you seem to be annoyed, you don't seem sad that you have lost a throne. Didn't you want to be king?"

"Good question." Gerhard took another pebble and threw it into the pond. "At first I kinda was... I had focused all my time since Vladimir's disappearance on learning everything I needed to know as a king. Lately it just annoys me. I'm pragmatic – Rapunzel is here, married, has an heir. I should move on. But as long as Rapunzel didn't seem able to have children, father pretty much prevented me from even trying to talk to any young noblewoman, telling me to stop it since if something happened to Rapunzel and her family, I needed to be free to marry a princess." He snorted.

Elsa frowned. "Wait... you don't think he would...?"

Gerhard blinked, at first not understanding. Then his eyes widened. "No! NO! He wouldn't! In fact when I told him that if Rapunzel was murdered, I wouldn't take the throne since people would immediately suspect me and it could start a war, he told me that he would not besmirch my mother's memory. And I believe that he was sincere. He was just stubborn for too long and now that Eve has been born, he has offended much of the minor nobility in AND outside of Corona with his arrogance, and gossip did the rest."

"Well... forgive me if I ask, but do you NEED to marry?" Elsa asked. She knew that this might be a personal question, but she was curious. "I mean, Queen Elsa is not married either, but she get's along fine... with some help from her family of course." Well... that wasn't a COMPLETE lie. Over the last years Elsa had finally agreed with Anna that delegating some work to her sister, Kristoff and some trusted advisers wouldn't make her look weak, and since then she had had more time to spend with her dear family. And although she LIKED working to improve her kingdom, Anna's love for her was endless, Kristoff was the best brother-in-law she could wish for and she loved Anna's children just as much as her sister... with so much happiness during the day an empty space next to her at night sometimes felt especially lonely.

"Indeed, she seems to be a remarkable woman." Gerhard was staring at her strangely again, then he showed her a crooked smile. "But forgive me... I have told you quite much about me until now. I'm sorry if I bored you. It would only be fair if you now told me some things about you and Arendelle's royal family. I've heard all the rumors of course, but I'd like to hear your opinion."

Well, she could not say much against that... and, her family aside, it was very rare for her to have such an enjoyable conversation with anyone. So she told Gerhard her... or rather "Gerda's" version of the events after her coronation... and about Rapunzel and Eugene appearing in her and Anna's lives... and even some anecdotes out of her family life! She registered rather late that Gerhard was not only a good storyteller, but also a good listener, interrupting with deliberate questions and otherwise remaining quiet and focused. Quite the opposite of her own sister actually, whom she usually told this kind of things.

"So Queen Elsa really allowed Princess Anna to marry a commoner?" Gerhard asked. He laughed. "She surely didn't endear herself to a lot of people with that, am I right?"

"That's true," Elsa agreed, smiling. Foreign nobles, some of her own advisers... many people had been disappointed that she would not sacrifice Anna's happiness for stronger bonds with another nation. But for Elsa this hadn't even been a choice. Her baby sister had saved her in every possible way... from Hans' sword, from her loneliness, from her powers. Nothing would EVER be more important to her than Anna's happiness. "But the princess is worth it."

"For the queen at least," Gerhard agreed. "From what you have told me, it seems like she invests all the time that is not filled with work into her family." He grinned. "Is that the reason why she has never married? Because she doesn't have time for it?"

Elsa returned the grin. "Maybe," she evaded the question.

Gerhard became serious again. "But seriously... one of the rumors I have heard is that your queen cannot have children. Is that the real reason why she does not want to marry?"

Elsa's happiness vanished. For a moment she was mad at Gerhard for bringing up this topic... but he seemed genuinely interested. And it wasn't like she hadn't said these things to her suitors also. "Not exactly," she whispered, avoiding eye-contact. "It's not like the queen CAN'T have children... but her powers are tied to her emotions. And whenever she loses her self-control, they could hurt someone. Like during lovemaking..." She paused. "Or childbirth."

Gerhard's eyes widened. "I understand." He paused too, leading to a moment of total silence. "But has she never even considered a marriage of convenience? To have someone around her that can help her with her work?"

"Not many other nations are interested in marriages with no prospect of heirs," Elsa answered. She looked at the young man. "Marriage of convenience? Do you not believe in love at first sight, Gerhard?"

"No," he dismissed, shaking is head. "My own experience with not being able to marry because of my father's meddling and power games in general makes me believe that love is a luxury reserved for commoners."

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "That's a rather cynical outlook," she commented.

"Probably." Gerhard shrugged. "But since most marriages between nobles are arranged ones, I think I'd be content if I and my future wife could be good friends at least. If love blossoms from that later... all the better. For me it would be more important that we were similar enough to have topics we can both talk about... and that we agreed to give each other space when we want it."

"Because you are sick of your father's constant patronization?" Elsa presumed and the young man nodded. "That actually sounds quite reasonable. Is that the reason why you WANT to marry? To be able to make your own decisions?"

"That's a huge part of it, yes, although I don't really hate my father," Gerhard agreed and stood up. "Though it's also that I would like to test if I really would be a good caretaker of my land and people. It's a bit frustrating if you study for years what a king needs to know and then you can't use your skills."

"That I understand," Elsa agreed, standing up too. More than he knew. She had longed to be free to use her special skill way longer than he had... yet his hopes had only been crushed recently, while her freedom had been given to her after a long period of utter hopelessness. By her personal guardian angel... Anna. She smiled.

"I'm sure you do. Shall we go back now? We have been here for more than an hour, I think."

"What about the prince and the princess?"

"Oh, them?" Gerhard smiled sheepishly and scratched his head. "I must confess... they didn't really say that they would hide out here, but in uncle Thomas' and aunt Primrose's rooms. I just wanted to relax here in the garden for a while."

"Really?" Elsa cocked her head and folded her arms. "And you lied to me because...?"

"Because I knew that the staff would find the two children soon, as long as they were in the castle," Gerhard explained. "And... because I thought you would be pleasant company. Which you are."

A part of her was flattered by this, but a bigger part was irritated. Her fingers tingled and she knew that her powers were trying to manifest themselves. But her will was still holding them back. "Still... you should not have lied to me," she reprimanded the young man. "Now my memory of this meeting will be forever tainted."

Gerhard sighed dramatically and seized Elsa's hand. Her eyes widened as she realized that it was especially cold right now, but there wasn't any indication that the young noble had noticed. "I know," he said ruefully. "And I am truly sorry for that." He kissed her hand.

Elsa stared at him. "You did not have to do that," she remarked, a suspicion forming in her mind. "I am just a lady-in-waiting."

He smiled at her. "Sure," he said, his voice full of hidden meaning. "Of course."

Elsa paused for a moment. "You KNOW who I am," she concluded accusingly. "You have known since you first touched my hand."

"I suspected it," Gerhard admitted. "Although I was not sure at first because of your hair color. To be fair though, YOU were the one pretending to be your own lady-in-waiting." He bowed his head respectfully. "And since we have now been formally introduced... please allow me to say how deeply honored I am that you have spent some of your invaluable time with me, Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

Nearly against her will Elsa smiled. "I will not say that the last hour was horrible," she declared, allowing her magic to cool down their surroundings a bit. "Still, I am not sure if I am more amused or displeased that you have lead me on for so long."

"Oh please, your highness, don't degrade yourself," Gerhard overacted rather shamelessly and bowed low. "As you can tell from my story, I am way too unimportant to serve as a worthy target for your royal anger."

She could not help it. She laughed out loud. The temperature normalized again. "My dear Sir, you are a scoundrel," she told the young noble, still chuckling. "You will have to work on that if you don't want me to cancel my invitation for you to visit me in Arendelle."

He looked up. "Do you really mean that?" he asked, not sure if this was also a joke. "Am I really invited, your highness?"

"Please don't call me 'your highness', Gerhard," Elsa begged and took his hand. "I DID enjoy your company... and yes, I would like to continue our conversation if you could find some time to visit me."

He smiled. "Well, I'd be a true fool to ignore this invitation," he said, kissing her hand once more.

"Great!" Elsa concluded, offering her arm. "How about we go inside then? I really need to wash out this hair dye and you need to tell your father that you have received an invitation by the queen of Arendelle." She paused for a moment, when an idea formed in her head. "Or maybe we should tell him together... so that I can see his face when he realizes WHOM he bumped into earlier."

Gerhard stared at her with big eyes, but then he started grinning and linked arms with Elsa. "My queen, I am afraid to tell you, but if you try then you are way more devious than I can ever hope to be."

"And don't you ever forget it, my dear Sir."

Then they both started walking back to the castle. Somewhere in her head Elsa hoped that the staff had found Eve and Ragnar in the meantime... Anna really shouldn't have to worry while she was pregnant. But most of her personality was enjoying the feeling that this young man, though by no means a perfect Prince Charming, could become a very dear friend.

Or more than that. Time would tell.

* * *

Before someone asks: Yes, Gerhard's brother Vladimir is Hook Hand's unicorn-loving companion. The last chapter will be the promised bonus chapter, featuring the original Flynn Rider - the guy Eugene read about as a child - on the "Tangled"-side and the Snow King and the Spring Maiden, two OCs from my first Frozen-fanfiction, on the "Frozen"-side.


End file.
